


By Gravelight

by bittergrin



Series: Shadows in the Moonlight [2]
Category: High School Musical (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Cthulhu Mythos, F/M, Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-10-21
Updated: 2007-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:48:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 46,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24265375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bittergrin/pseuds/bittergrin
Summary: Sharpay finds herself increasingly confused by her twin’s behavior and a pair of new students.
Relationships: Jason Cross/Kelsi Nielsen, Joey/IQ, Troy Bolton/Ryan Evans, Zeke Baylor/Sharpay Evans
Series: Shadows in the Moonlight [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751512
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

My name is Sharpay Marie Evans, and I have a secret too. Yes, I know that’s how my brother started his narrative, and while I think it’s too melodramatic, he insisted that I try to match his writing style. But, as he would say, I’m getting ahead of myself.

* * *

It was New Year’s Eve 2007, and I was in a bitchy mood. My brother had broken up with the third most amazing guy at East High, and he wouldn’t tell me why. I’d tried to get the answer out of Troy, but all he’d tell me was that Ryan “didn’t think he deserved me.”

Bullshit.

Gabriella seemed to know more about what was going on then I did, which pissed me off all the more. I was the twin sister; I was supposed to know my brother better than anyone, not the Einsteinette.

She refused to give me the details, but at least she had a plan to get Ryan and Troy back together.

I was just lucky Ryan had agreed to go to Chad’s party with me. When I woke him up that day I thought I might have had to follow through on my threat and have Zeke tie him up and cart him there naked.

The clock struck midnight, the big ball on TV dropped, and Zeke pulled me into a kiss. His lips tasted like cinnamon.

We stood there making out until a sound from above distracted me from his lips.

“What was that?”

“A kiss?”

I punched him in the arm. “Not that. The sound?”

It came again, a moan from upstairs.

He glanced at the ceiling and smirked. “Sounds like they made up.”

I heard a gasp from behind me, and turned to find Chad, his eyes wide.

“Oh God, not on my bed. I’ll have to burn the sheets.”

Chad bolted for the stairs, leaving a trail of laughter in his wake.

A pounding came from upstairs, followed by a string of curses. “Guys, this isn’t funny. Open the God damned door.”

Taylor burst into laughter and I found myself smiling.

Chad’s desperate plea of “Guys!” was followed by another moan, louder than the last.

“Guys! Not on my bed!”

“R… R… Ryan!”

Gabriella was blushing. I started giggling.

“No! Guys!”

“Yes! Yes! Ryan!”

Chad stormed down the stairs and glared at me. “Tell your brother he owes me a new bed.”

Zeke wrapped his arms around me, embracing me from behind as I laughed.

After half an hour I heard the door upstairs swing open, and the reunited lovers came strolling down the stairs arm in arm.

Chad glared at them.

I glanced to my brother’s hand. Troy’s promise ring was back where it belonged, thank God. Gabriella’s plan B had called for locking them in our basement and beating their heads with two by fours until they realized what was good for them.

I made my way over to them.

They didn’t even see me approach; they were lost in each other’s eyes.

I cleared my throat and Ryan turned to look at me, a stupid grin plastered on his face. Troy remained oblivious.

I rolled my eyes. “Chad says you owe him a new bed.”

Ryan laughed. “He needs one. I was afraid that rickety old thing was going to collapse underneath us.”

I laughed and returned to my Zekey-pooh.

* * *

The rest of Christmas break passed all too fast. Ryan spent all of his free time with Troy, and mother and father were in the Bahamas on yet another honeymoon. The house was mine, and mine alone. It felt good.

Zeke came over and baked me dinner every night and then we’d snuggle on the couch watching basketball and movies.

Ryan was there at times, of course, just to grab clothes most of the time. He did have Taylor over one afternoon though, to discuss what type of bed he should buy for Chad.

School started again the next Monday. Ryan and I spent Sunday night planning our outfits. It was the last first day of a term we’d ever have at East High, and we had to leave the freshmen something to remember.

He insisted on wearing the hat he’d worn to Chad’s New Year’s party. I tried to dissuade him, the navy blue fedora was cute and everything, but it seemed a little too somber for the first day of the semester. He was being stubborn though, and so we had to coordinate everything around it.

I selected a white dress shirt and light blue slacks for him, offset by navy blue shoes, belt, socks, and hat. I wore a pink dress, of course, with belt and pumps to match my brother’s stupid hat.

My alarm went off at 6:00 AM on the dot. I did my morning exercises and took a shower. At 6:45 I stepped into the hall at the same moment as Ryan. I looked him mover with a critical eye.

“Fabulous as always, sis.”

I smiled and tossed my hair with a well-rehearsed turn of my head. “I know.”

We went downstairs for our morning protein shakes, and then to my car.

When we passed through the doors into the halls of East High all eyes turned and focused on us. Well they should have.

We stopped at our lockers to unload our books and proceeded to homeroom. Ryan and I both had homeroom with Ms. Darbus this semester, the semester before he had it with his dingbat of a math teacher.

I froze upon entering the room. “Something isn’t right.”

Ryan looked from me to the room.

When the bell rang and Ms. Darbus hadn’t arrived, I knew I’d been right.

An elderly woman, who looked like she’d crawled out of the grave to be there, entered the room, leaning on a cane.

“Good morning class, I’m Mrs. Jewls.”

“Where’s Ms. Darbus?”

The woman glared at me. “I didn’t call on you young lady. Please keep your voice down until after I call role.”

As she made her way to the podium I turned to look at Ryan. There was a plastic grin etched on his face. I’d been about to whisper a question to him, but the words died in my throat when I saw his eyes; his eyes looked a million miles away.

“Ryan Evans?”

“Present.”

“Sharpay Evans?”

I looked from my twin to Mrs. Jewls. “Present.”

I glanced around the room; there were two new boys sitting in the back. Great, more transfer students. I hoped they didn’t intend to take my spot in the musical like that minx Gabriella.

“Joseph Johnson?”

One of the two raised his hand. “Here, ma’am.” He sounded… chipper as he said it. There was no other word for it. He had an east coast accent, Maryland maybe?

Mrs. Jewls continued going down the list.

The two boys were kind of cute. Not cuter than Zeke, of course, but attractive.

I waited for the strange teacher to get to the other boy’s name.

“Jesse Jones?”

“Here.” Less enthusiastic then the other, but he spoke with the same accent.

I nudged Ryan and pointed at them.

He looked the pair over, and then rolled his eyes. He’d been blind to all other men since he and Troy started dating. I just didn’t get it. I mean sure, I was with Zeke and I loved him, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t take a few looks, did it?

The bell rang, and Mrs. Jewls dismissed us to our first period classes. To my disappointment neither Joseph nor Jesse was in my English class.

I didn’t see either again until lunch, when I caught site of the two of them eating alone at a table on the far side of the cafeteria.

I considered offering to let them sit with us, but that’s just not the sort of thing an ice princess does. I had a reputation to worry about.

I sat with Zeke, Ryan, Troy, Kelsi, and Jason.

Ryan and Kelsi were discussing the choreography for the upcoming musical, while the boys talked sports.

I have a dirty little secret of my own to confess to; I _get_ sports. Worse, sometimes, I think I might even like them. I complained every time Zeke turned on a basketball game over vacation, I had an image to protect, but on the inside I was happy.

So, while I was looking at Ryan and Kelsi and nodding, I was paying attention to the sports talk.

“So do you think you’d be able to do that in heels, Sharpay?”

I blinked. Ryan was talking to me. Shit.

I had no idea what he was talking about, but I nodded. “Yeah, no problem.”

He gave me a sly smile. “You weren’t paying attention.”

“What? Of course I was.”

“Then what was I just talking about?”

Damn twin connection.

I had to think fast. “Fine. You caught me. I was wondering why Ms. Darbus wasn’t in homeroom.”

He stiffened. So did Kelsi.

The guys stopped talking. I glanced at them to find Troy and Jason looking uncomfortable.

Okay, something strange was definitely going on.

* * *

Mrs. Jewls was still there come last period.

I entered the room and took _my_ seat, noticing as I did that the two new boys were already seated in the back of the room.

I saw Jesse look towards the door and gasp. I turned to see Troy and Ryan walking in, hand in hand.

I turned back to the new boys to find them both blushing. I sighed; of course, the cute ones are always gay.

“Take your seats please.” I focused on Mrs. Jewls as she spoke.

Everyone took their seats, and faced the new teacher in silence.

“Good afternoon class, I’m Mrs. Jewls.” She paused, she seemed to be awaiting a response, but none was forthcoming from the class.

“Yes, well. I’m certain you’re all wondering where your old teacher, Ms. Darbus, is.”

I glanced at Ryan as the teacher spoke. He had that same distant look in his eyes. As I watched Troy took my brother’s hand and squeezed it. They knew something.

“Well I’m afraid it looks like she elected to terminate her employment. Principal Matsui didn’t go into the details with me, I’m afraid, but I was called out of retirement to take over her duties until someone permanent can be hired.”

What? Ms. Darbus quit? That wasn’t like her. Theatre was her life. Had she gotten a role on Broadway or something?

“Now you may all know each other, but as I don’t, we’re going to around the room. Each of you will say your name, and then tell the class something funny about yourself.”

My jaw dropped. Was she serious? That was _so_ … first grade.

Everyone else in the room looked surprised and uncomfortable.

Mrs. Jewls pointed to the corner of the room where the new boys were seated. “You there, why don’t you go first?”

I turned and eyed the boys, a predatory grin on my face.

“Uh… I’m Joey.”

“And what’s something funny about you, Joey?”

“Uh… I once tried out for _So You Think You Can Dance_?”

Great, a dancer, I could already see the previous year flashing before my eyes. Why couldn’t untalented students ever transfer to East High?

Mrs. Jewls focused her attention on the other new boy.

“I’m Jesse, and… uh… the kids at my old school used to call me ‘IQ’ because of my good grades.”

Even better, a dancer and a brain. It was like someone had split Gabriella into two gay guys.

The teacher worked her away around the room. I didn’t pay attention to all the students; some were too boring to be worth listening to.

“I’m Troy, and I’m the only basketball captain in the history of East High to star in a school musical.”

“I’m Chad, and I have the best hair in school. That’s counting the girls.”

I snorted. As if.

“I’m Zeke, and I like to bake.”

“I’m Sharpay Evans, my favorite color is pink. I have a little dog named Rufus, and after college I’m going to take Hollywood and Broadway by storm.”

“I’m Ryan. I’m related to her.” He pointed at me.

The entire class laughed. I shot him a death glare.

“My name’s Gabriella, and I once fainted while doing a solo in church.”

I rolled my eyes. If only she was still that shy.

“Jason, I play basketball.”

Mrs. Jewls looked like she was about to point out that that wasn’t something funny, but the sincere look in Jason’s eyes convincer her otherwise. “That’s nice, dear. And you, young lady?”

“I’m Kelsi, I hit him a lot.” To prove her point she cuffed Jason on the back of the head.

“Ow. What?”

Mrs. Jewls snickered and looked to the last student.

“My name is Taylor McKessie, I’m president of the Chemistry Club, and this year I’m hoping to combine fluorine, uranium, carbon, and potassium.”

Gabriella snickered. Must’ve been some geek joke.

Mrs. Jewls rolled her eyes. “Very amusing, Ms. McKessie. It might interest you to know that I minored in chemistry. I’ll be seeing you after school for detention.”

“Now then. For your first assignment I am going to divide you into teams. Each team will select a short scene from the collected works of William Shakespeare and perform it for the class on Friday.”

Mrs. Jewls pulled up the attendance sheet and began writing. “Jason, you’ll be with Sabra, Troy and Joey, Chad and Ryan, Zeke and Gabriella, Kelsi and Ms. McKessie, and Jesse and Sharpay.”

Ugh. My Zekey-pooh partnered with the Einsteinette.

“Get with your partners. This is the only time you’ll have in class to prepare.”

I checked my nails while waiting for the new boy to make his way to me. I don’t give up my seat for anybody.

He cleared his throat.

I glanced up to see him standing above my desk. “Hi. I’m Jesse.”

“Yeah, I heard.” I motioned for him to sit in the now vacant desk in front of me.

“So… uh… what do you… uh… think we should do?”

I smiled at him. His eyes went wide and he backed away.

“The death scene from _Romeo and Juliet_.”

“Uh… yeah… that sounds… okay.”

“Are you always this nervous?”

He blinked. “Uh… yes. I mean… no. No.”

“Because this is going to look horrible if you stutter through the entire scene like that.”

He blushed and looked away.

I followed his gaze, right at the other new boy.

“Don’t worry. Troy’s not going to steal your boyfriend.”

He swallowed and looked at me. “What? No… we’re not…”

“Uh huh, whatever.”

I pulled a copy of the play from my pink backpack and flipped to the end.

I handed it to him. “Here, you can borrow my copy. I have it memorized.”

He took it. “Really. We’re not…”

“Look. I don’t really care. Stay in your closet it you want to. You have the first line.” I tapped the book in front of him.

“Wait… I’m not Romeo?”

I laughed. “Of course not, he’s already dead by this point. You’re the friar.”

He started to read, his voice flat. “Romeo! Alack, alack, what blood is this, which…”


	2. Chapter 2

I gave Jesse my address and told him to come over at seven that night. If his performance in class was any indication, we had a lot of work to do.

Ryan tried to make small talk on the way home, but I ignored him. I was still angry that he was keeping secrets from me, from his own sister, his twin.

At 7:15 there was a knock on the door. Ryan answered it and showed Joey into the practice room.

“You’re late.”

“Uh… yeah… it took me a while to find your street… sorry.”

“Let’s start with a read through.”

He pulled my copy of _Romeo and Juliet_ from his bag and opened it.

His pronunciation was good, but his performance lacked anything resembling emotion.

“Well, that was…”

“Bad?”

“I was going to say horrible, but we can go with bad.”

He laughed.

I heard his stomach growl.

“Oh, did you not eat dinner before coming over?”

His eyes darted to the floor. “Uh… I didn’t have time.”

“You’re lying. But let’s see if a full stomach can’t improve your performance. There should still be some leftovers from dinner, if Ryan hasn’t gotten to them yet.”

I led him from the practice room to the kitchen. “I swear, ever since he started dating Troy he’s been eating everything in sight. I guess Troy gives him plenty of good workouts.”

I turned as I opened the refrigerator to see Jesse bluffing.

I just smiled as I pulled out a bowl of pasta salad and offered it to him. Not gay, right.

I showed him where the plates and utensils were, he piled a heaping mound of salad on the plate.

I took the now lighter bowl and returned it to the refrigerator. “Something to drink?”

“Milk?”

I poured a glass of skim for him, and a glass of iced tea for myself.

I took mother’s seat at the dining room table; he took a seat on the side and proceeded to shovel the pasta salad into his mouth.

“So, where are you and Joey from?”

“Colorado.” He mumbled between bites.

“With that accent? I don’t think so.”

He dropped the fork onto his almost empty plate and looked at me. “What do you mean?”

“I’m an actress, and I’ve worked with enough voice coaches and dialect teachers to know that no one raised in Colorado speaks like you two.”

“Uh… well that’s where we’re from.”

“I can also tell when someone’s lying. You’re from somewhere in Maryland, aren’t you?”

“No.”

“Fine. Be mysterious if you want to. But I’m going to find out what you’re hiding.”

“Uh. Thanks for dinner, but I should really be going.”

“Not so fast. We have more practicing to do.”

“It’s getting late; I really need to get home.”

I looked at the clock; it was only 8:15.

“I don’t think so.”

“My dad will be mad.”

“Fine, but you’re coming back tomorrow. If we don’t practice you’ll look horrible up there. If you look horrible, I’ll look horrible. If I look horrible, then I’ll have to destroy you.”

I gave him my most predatory smile, the same one I’d given Ryan on New Year’s Eve.

His eyes widened as he stood. “Yeah, sure. No problem.”

He bolted from the room and I heard the front door slam.

“Done already, sis?” Ryan stepped into the room and eyed the empty plate.

“There’s something strange about that boy, Ry, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

* * *

I overheard the two boys talking in the hall the next morning.

“She doesn’t know anything, Jess, just do the project and hopefully you’ll never have to work with her again.”

Joey was affecting a more southwestern accent. It was convincing. It figured I’d get stuck with the unskilled one.

“Maybe I should transfer out of Drama.” I had to stifle a laugh. Jesse’s accent was straight out of a bad western.

“You know you can’t. I need you there. And drop the accent, it’s not working.”

“But?”

“We’ll just have to hope no one else has such a good ear.”

I emerged from around the corner then and walked towards them.

“Hiya boys.” I waved, and stopped in front of Jesse. “You’ll be able to practice later tonight, won’t you? I want this to be perfect.”

He blushed and nodded. “Fabulous. See you two in last period. Toodles.”

“Uh… toodles.” Jesse waved as I walked off.

No one keeps secrets in my school. Which reminded me, I needed to come up with a plan to find out what Ryan knew about Darbus leaving.

* * *

I Googled their names during free period. I discovered two things. One, Joey Johnson is one of the most common names on the continent. Two, Jesse Jones isn’t uncommon either. I got plenty of hits, but none for either of them.

I tried adding ‘Maryland’ and ‘Colorado’ to the searches, but it didn’t help anything.

I sighed and looked through the computer’s search history. Huh, someone had done a lot of research on werewolves. Usually all anyone else looked for was research for papers, or porn.

Jesse was on time that night, but Ryan was already sequestered in the practice room with Chad. I tried to find out scene they were doing, but he just told me I’d “love it and laugh for weeks”. At least it was one secret he wouldn’t be keeping too long.

I considered using the living room, but decided I’d need the maximum advantage if I was going to get anything out of my partner.

Jesse arrived early, and I led him up to my room to practice.

I closed the door behind him and smiled.

“I’ve been… practicing. I think I have the lines memorized.”

“Fabulous.”

We ran through the scene, and he did have it memorized. I was impressed. I guess they called him IQ for a reason.

His delivery, however, still lacked feeling. It was like listening to a tin can read the yellow pages.

“Hmm… I twirled my hair.”

“Still not good?”

“That’s one way of putting it. You’ve got the words down, but your performance leaves a bit to be desired.”

“How do you mean?”

“You’re just reading the words. You’re ignoring the meaning behind them. This is Shakespeare, not some boring textbook.”

“Oh.”

“Seriously. Haven’t you ever felt passion?”

“Of course I have.” He blushed.

“Well it doesn’t sound like it.”

He sighed.

“Why are you taking drama?”

“Because it’s always interested me.”

“You mean because you need an extracurricular activity to look good for colleges?”

He smiled. “Yeah, that too.”

“Well then. Get your things. We’re going to a movie.”

“What?”

“You need some exposure to culture.”

“You mean like… on a date?”

“What if I do?”

“Uh, well… I… uh…”

“Don’t you like me, Jesse?” I gave my trademarked pout, the one that got me my first car.

“Uh… of course I… I mean I don’t know you.”

“Is it because you think I’m ugly?” I allowed my eyes to start tearing up.

“No. You’re beautiful.”

“And you already said you weren’t gay… so why won’t you go to a movie with me?”

I let one tear fall, hoping it wouldn’t ruin my makeup.

His defenses collapsed. “Fine, what movie.”

I smiled, “We’ll find something when we get to the theater, I’m sure.”

For a moment I felt bad, this was almost like cheating on Zeke. But it’s not like it was a real date. I mean Jesse was so obviously gay, but it was going to take extreme measures to get him to admit that. And once I had that out of him, I’d start work on his other secrets.

I drove to the theater. We saw the new James Marsden movie, _27 Dresses_. It was hard to pull myself away, James Marsden is such a primo actor, but I managed to watch my ‘date’ a few times. He was enraptured with the movie.

After we returned to my house I examined his car with a critical. It was and old Buick that made Troy’s truck look expensive.

“I need to go. Joey will be worried about me.”

“Oh. So you live together.” Eye batted my eyes at him.

“Uh… I need to go.”

“Well make sure you practice. We’re rehearsing again tomorrow night.”

He nodded as he climbed into his car, through the window. His car sputtered to live and he drove off.

I walked into the house to be confronted by an angry Zeke.

“What was that about?”

“We were just practicing.”

“Where?”

“I took him to the movies because he needed some inspiration for his character.”

“Just the two of you, alone at the movies?”

“Oh Zeke, don’t be jealous. Don’t you trust me?” I twirled my hair about my finger and sniffed as I said it.

His eyes softened.

“Of course I do, Sharpay. I get jealous.”

“I know you do. And I’m sorry. But trust me, that boy is as gay as my brother.”

“Really?”

I nodded. “Have I ever told you how hot you are when you’re jealous?”

He blinked and I led him upstairs.

* * *

The next day I invited myself to the table the two had been sharing. Ryan and Troy followed me.

“Hey boys. Mind if we join you?”

Joey flashed a dazzling smile. Jesse blushed.

Ryan extended his hand. “Hey. I’m Ryan.”

They both blushed this time, but both shook his hand.

“Nice to meet you, Ryan. Troy won’t shut up about you.”

Ryan gave Troy a hug, and Troy blushed.

We all sat down.

“So how do you guys like East High?” Troy asked.

“It’s nice.” Joey mumbled between bites.

“Where’re you guys from?” Ryan asked.

“Colorado.” they answered in well-rehearsed unison?

“Really? I would’ve thought somewhere on the east coast.”

Jesse’s eyes widened, but Joey didn’t miss a beat. “Nope, Denver.”

Ryan eyed them, but let the issue slide.

Troy swallowed a bite of food and looked at Joey. “So how long have you two been going out?”

“Two years.”

Jesse elbowed Joey. “You told him?”

Joey rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah, I meant to tell you that.” He looked each of us in the eye then. “Uh, listen. Jess here isn’t so sure about the whole coming out thing; he doesn’t want to be treated differently. So we’d both appreciate it if you’d keep that under your hat.”

I smiled. “Oh my God. That’s _so_ cute. I knew I was right about you, Jesse.”

He blushed and shoveled more food into his mouth.

Joey looked at me. “Are we that obvious?”

I shrugged. “No. But I know gay when I see it.”

Troy laughed. “So that’s why you hit on me all last year and summer?”

I shot him a glare. “I was warming you up for my brother.”

He laughed again. “Right.”

Ryan and Joey laughed too. Jesse blushed.

I looked at the pair of new boys. “So both of your parents moved here at the same time? That’s lucky.”

Joey and Jesse fell silent.

“Actually… are parents are dead. We moved here ourselves.” Jesse looked at his plate as he spoke.

“So where are you staying?” I was shocked.

“We have an apartment. It’s not much, but its home.”

Troy and Ryan looked as uncomfortable as I felt.

“Wow… that’s… wow… I’m sorry guys.” Troy was stumbling over his words like he always does when he’s nervous.

“Thanks.” Joey was still studying his plate.

“So, how long have you two been together?” Jesse changed the topic.

“Just since August.” Ryan smiled as he said it.

Troy nodded and took Ryan’s hand, bringing it to his lips.

“And no one here cares?” Jesse looked around the room, surprised that no one seemed to care about the public display of affection.

Troy shrugged. “Some people do, mostly on the football team.”

Ryan nodded. “But Troy here is captain and star player of the basketball team, so what are they going to do about it?” Ryan’s eyes beamed with pride as he said it.

I snorted. “Captain maybe, but my Zekey-pooh is ten times the player he is.”

Troy laughed.

Joey mouthed ‘Zekey-pooh?’

“So why’d you guys choose Albuquerque of all placed to move to?” Troy asked.

Joey smiled; his teeth were a dazzling white. “Just looking for a fresh start.”

“So you chose a school with its very own serial killer?”

The four boys all went silent.

I glanced at Ryan and he had that distant look in his eyes again.

Troy took my brother’s hand again, and he seemed to liven up at once.

“Can’t beat the academics here.” Jesse gave a grim smile as he said it.

“Oh my God! You should join the scholastic decathlon team!”

“What?”

“They called you, IQ, at your old school right? I bet you’d be a perfect fit.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready for…”

I stood up and looked towards our normal table. “Taylor! Gabriella! I have a new recruit for you.” I motioned for them to come over.

Gabriella looked embarrassed, for being so good on stage she never seemed to like attention. But they came over.

Zeke followed them.

“What’s going on, Sharpay?” Taylor asked.

“Jesse here is a complete brain, and he’s got a great memory. You absolutely _have_ to put him on the team.”

Jesse blushed.

I felt Zeke’s arms embrace me from behind.

Taylor and Gabriella sat down at the table. Taylor pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down some equation.

“All right, let’s see how good you are. What’s wrong with this equation?”’

Jesse studied it. “Um… it should read sixteen over Pi?”

Taylor and Gabriella shared a grin.

“Okay, we have a meeting after school today at 3:30 in the chemistry lab on the second floor. How are you at physics?”

Jesse had a bewildered look, but Joey gave him an encouraging smile.

I smiled and allowed Zeke to lead me away.


	3. Chapter 3

Jesse’s performance improved, but there was no doubting that the theater was not his true calling.

Friday arrived, and he managed to not make too big of a fool of himself, which was all I could hope for I guess.

Somehow, and I suspect Troy had a hand in it, Ryan managed to convince Chad to perform the balcony scene from _Romeo and Juliet_. Chad was Juliet. The entire class was in hysterics, Taylor laughing loudest of all.

Troy and Joey reenacted the final sword fight from _Hamlet_. Troy’s performance of the lines was better, but Joey had better footwork.

There was a basketball game after school. The state championships were a week away, and it was shaping up to be the East High Wildcats versus the West High Knights again. Everyone was hoping for a repeat of the previous year, even though Coach Bolton hadn’t been allowed back yet.

The team was, if anything, even better this year than last. I don’t even know why the Albuquerque Bulldogs bothered to show; we beat them 71 to 34, securing our team a place in the state championship the following week.

Zeke and Troy spent the weekend practicing. So Ryan and I spent the weekend planning their victory party. We should’ve been practicing for the winter musical auditions, but Mrs. Jewls had pushed them back by three weeks so that Kelsi could familiarize her with the show. Besides, Ryan choreographed the whole thing; there was no one who knew it better than he and Kelsi at this point.

As the entire East High student body would be invited, the house was out. Convincing Daddy to close Lava Springs was easy enough, and convincing him to make sure the University of Albuquerque scouts were there to get a last look at Zeke, and Troy too I guess, was even easier.

Half of Lava Springs was already closed anyway, Daddy was working on expanding it, but the construction crews had stumbled upon some old Native American ruins and archaeologists from the university had been swarming over the area for almost a month.

I wanted to send out personal invitation to the entire school, but Ryan whined about how his wrist couldn’t take that many signatures. He insisted on flyers instead, how… industrial.

He also vetoed any hopes I’d had of performing. It wasn’t often I got the entire student body in one place, but I suppose he was right. That party was supposed to be about the team, not me. I’d let them have their day in the sun. Or is that night in the moonlight? Whatever.

Mrs. Jewls posted the signup list for the auditions on Monday. I noticed that Gabriella had already signed up to audition for the lead when I signed up. There were no pair auditions this time around, which suited me fine. As the week went on Troy, Ryan, and Joey signed up too. I was glad Jesse didn’t. He was a nice enough boy, but he’d die on the stage.

Friday, the day of the big game arrived. At the game I noted that Gabriella, Jesse, and Taylor weren’t present, it was the first round of the scholastic decathlon too, same as the year before.

West High was up by ten points at half time. But my Zekey-pooh managed to turn that around and we won our second championship in as many years by 5 points.

For some reason the team voted Troy the game ball, again, I couldn’t imagine why. Zeke was so much better, which I made sure to tell him after the game on the way to the country club.

He rolled his eyes and laughed.

“No, really. You are so much better than he is. It’s such a shame he gets all the credit.”

“Whatever you say, Shar.”

“Fine, don’t believe me. But you’ll see when you get to college and Troy’s father isn’t the coach anymore.”

He laughed and patted my hand.

* * *

The party was, in a word, fabulous.

Jason stole a bottle of vodka from his dad’s liquor cabinet, and some of the football players brought liquor too.

It wasn’t much when split through half of the student body, but it was enough for to liven things up even more. I persuaded Jason to keep his bottle hidden for the exclusive after party at the pool.

Ryan and Troy disappeared about halfway through, but I figured they couldn’t be up to too much, as Troy’s telltale screams weren’t echoing across the course.

Still being in high school most of the guests had to go home before midnight. I had the staff evict the rest after midnight, calling cabs for those too inebriated to be trusted driving home.

I’d invited Chad and Taylor to the after party, but they had to go home. I tried pouting to get them to stay for a short swim, but Taylor told me they were going to celebrate the twin basketball and decathlon victories by christening Chad’s new bed.

I’d considered inviting the whole basketball team, it was their night after all, but Ryan convinced me that it should just be the two of us and our closest friends, which to my dismay included Gabriella.

So it was Ryan, Troy, Kelsi, Jason, Gabriella, Zeke, and I who made our way to the pool.

I spotted Joey and Jesse being herded toward the parking lot along with some other seniors.

I smiled at Zeke. “I’ll meet you at the pool.”

He gave me a quizzical look, but shrugged and continued towards the pool.

I walked up to the group being escorted out.

“Joey, Jesse, leaving so soon?”

Jesse turned a bloodshot eye towards me. “Oh, Hi Sharpay. Yeah, they say we’ve gotta go.”

He was drunk, his accent was even more pronounced.

I took in Joey; he looked as drunk as his boyfriend.

“Oh. You two are in no condition to drive home yet. You’re coming with me.”

I motioned at the staff to continue assisting the other guests to their cars, stopping one of them to borrow her keys.

“Did you two bring your swimsuits?”

Joey blushed. “Uh, no.”

“Oh well. I’m sure we can find you something in the pro-shop.”

I led them off towards the country club.

As we passed by the kitchen I caught the scent of rotting meat. Ugh. I’d have to talk to Fulton about how they disposed of leftovers.

I unlocked the pro-shop and turned on the lights. I snagged two sets of swim trunks and handed one to each of them. “Here. These should be your sizes. The changing room is over there.” I pointed.

They stared at the swim trunks and back at me.

“Chop chop boys. I don’t want to be late for the pool party.”

They were too drunk to argue and made their way to the back of the shop. I found some towels, and left a note in the till.

They took a while changing. I wasn’t sure if it was because they were drunk, or because they were fooling around back there.

They emerged just as I’d resolved to go looking for them.

“There you are. Let’s go.”

I escorted them to the pool area, where Troy and Ryan were already engaged in a splash fight.

I avoided their path of destruction and took a seat next to Zeke.

He poked me in the side. “You’re sure he’s gay?”

I smiled. “As sure as I am of my own cup size, and have I said how cute you are when you’re jealous.”

He leaned in and kissed me.

I wondered why it was that his lips always tasted like cinnamon. I’d asked him once, but he’d called it a chef’s secret and refused to tell me.

I glance at Jesse and Joey. They were standing where I’d left them, looking confused and unsteady on their feet.

They’d already had plenty to drink, which was good. I hoped it wouldn’t take much more to loosen their lips. I was determined not to rest until I pried their secrets out of them.

I looked around, spotting Kelsi and Jason making out on the deck above the waterfall. “Jason! Where’s the vodka?”

He pulled away from Kelsi long enough to fumble around in the darkness and hold up a gleaming bottle.

“Well don’t horde it for yourself, bring it down here. It’s time for some drinking games.”

Gabriella wasn’t sure about drinking games, but Ryan managed to convince her to take part. To my surprise Kelsi was the first to agree.

“I’m half-Russian. The day one of _you_ can drink _me_ under the table is the day I disown myself.”

Everyone laughed at that.

I went over to Jesse and Joey and led them into the circle.

“So, what game should we play?” Jason asked.

I smiled. “I’ve got a good one to start with, I never.”

Gabriella looked worried. “I don’t really know any drinking games. How does it go?”

I smiled, glad that my knowledge of at least one thing exceeded that of the Einsteinette. “It’s simple. We go around the circle and each person says something they’ve never done. Everyone who has done it has to drink.”

I leaned in to Zeke and whispered in his ear.

“I’ll start. Then Zeke’ll go, and on around the circle.”

“I’ve never been afraid to perform in front of a crowd.”

Ryan and Joey were the only ones not to take drink the first time around.

“I’ve never had sex with a man.” Zeke smiled as he said what I’d told him to.

Troy and Ryan groaned and took their drinks, so did Kelsi, Joey, and Gabriella. That was interesting.

Joey elbowed Jesse in the side. “Take your drink, Jess.”

Jesse blushed. “But…”

“It’s not like they don’t all know now.”

Jesse looked around the group, as though afraid someone would attack him, and took a small sip.

After going around the circle twice, in which I had to drink five times, but was cautious to take small sips so that I wouldn’t get to drunk to pry the secrets from the pair to my right, I decided it was time for something else.

“Okay guys, now it’s time for everyone’s _favorite_ game, truth or dare.”

Everyone groaned.

“Isn’t that a little junior high, Sis?”

I glared at Ryan; he retreated into Troy’s embrace.

He was right of course, but in my defense, it seemed like a good idea to my intoxicated mind.

“Oh no, that’s where I draw the line, Sharpay.” Gabriella said.

“Yeah, next thing you know you’ll want to play spin the bottle, and then she’ll hurt me.” Jason pointed to Kelsi as he spoke.

“Damn straight.” Kelsi took another drink.

“Fine. We won’t play truth or dare; I was just hoping we could use it to break the ice with our new classmates here.”

“Did you ever consider asking us what you want to know?” Jesse burped after he spoke and a queasy look came over his face.

“Now that you mention it, no, I hadn’t.”

Everyone laughed.

“So why did you two move here, really?”

Joey laughed. “Like I already told you. We were looking for somewhere to start fresh.”

“Uh uh. Why Albuquerque. There are a thousand other places you could have gone.”

Ryan glared at me. “Sharpay, you’re being rude.”

I sighed.

“You wouldn’t believe us if we told you.” Jesse whispered it. I wasn’t certain anyone else had heard him speak, but Kelsi seemed to be looking in our direction.

“Yuck. What’s that smell?” Ryan was scrunching up his nose.

I took a sniff. “Vodka?”

He shook his head. “No. Not that.” He looked at Kelsi, and she too took a sniff and wrinkled her nose in disgust, as did Jason.

“It smells like rotting meat.” Jason looked sickened as he spoke.

I set my drink aside and took another sniff. “I still don’t smell anything. But it’s probably the leftovers from the kitchen.”

Troy shook his head. “No, that goes in the trash compactor.”

I took another sniff. This time the breeze did carry something foul to my nose.

“Ugh. The winter help must not have disposed of it properly.”

Ryan stood up. “I don’t think so.”

The smell was getting stronger.

Ryan, Troy, Kelsi, and Jason were all staring at the fence behind me.

I heard a snuffling noise coming from the other side of the fence, and turned. I couldn’t see anything through the shrubbery.

“We’ll check it out. You guys stay here.” Ryan moved towards the gate.

“Ryan. What do you think you’re doing? It could be another coyote. No one is going out there. It can’t get into the pool area.”

Ryan nodded, but cast a worried look at Troy.

Troy took his hand and squeezed.

I heard more snuffling coming from the direction of the gate.

Kelsi and Jason spun to look.

The lights were out everywhere but the pool and the club house. I caught a brief look at something large moving on all fours, its eyes reflected a glint of red.

There was a low growl then from the direction of the other gate.

I turned to look, but saw nothing in the darkness.

“This is our fault.” I heard Jesse whisper.

Joey placed an arm around his boyfriend.

I stood and took my cell phone from the table.

“Sharpay, what are you doing?” Ryan was watching me.

“Calling the police, or animal control, or someone.”

The snuffling sounds retreated into the darkness.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. We’ve all been drinking and we’re underage. Besides, you said they can’t get in.”

I looked him in the eyes. He was worried, but not about the drinking. What the Hell was up with him?

“Yeah. We’ll just wait them out. They’ll drag whatever they want out of the trash and leave.” Kelsi didn’t look confident as she said it.

I flipped my phone open and dialed 911. I raised it to my ear but didn’t hear any ringing. I pulled it away and looked at it, ‘No Signal’.

“Damn Verizon, they’re supposed to cover the club.”

Ryan pulled out his cell phone and checked it. “Shit.”

That was when the lights died.


	4. Chapter 4

It took my eyes some time to adjust to the faint light of the gibbous moon.

Someone screamed, I think it might have been me.

The growling sounds returned, near the gate closest to the parking lot.

Ryan placed himself between me and the gate. Troy and Kelsi each took a step towards the gate. I couldn’t see anyone else from where I was standing, but I felt Zeke behind me.

“Who’s there?” Ryan’s voice cut through the night.

The only answer was the sound of the gate unlatching.

I half expected to hear it creak open, but it was too well oiled for that.

I heard a hiss escape from Kelsi.

A dark shape crept from the shadows into the half-moonlight. At first I thought it was a mountain lion, but it was too large.

I heard the gate swing shut.

Ryan reached back and took my hand. He pulled off two of my rings and released my hand.

I couldn’t take my eyes away from the beast standing before us. In my peripheral vision I saw Ryan hand something to Troy.

My eyes were torn from the great cat by a flash of light.

A figure was standing in the darkness near the gate, lighting a cigarette. I saw his features briefly in the lighter’s glow. A middle aged man with black hair and a trim goatee.

“Who are you?” Ryan’s voice cut the night again.

The figure stepped forward, silent except for the sound of his boots.

He pulled the cigarette from his mouth, and exhaled a cloud of smoke. “Scared, pup?”

Ryan straightened and stared at the stranger. Had he grown? I didn’t remember Ryan being that tall.

The snuffling sound came from behind the fence again.

The stranger looked passed me to the fence. “You should be.”

“Of you?” Ryan’s voice was defiant.

The stranger took a step forward, revealing a dark skinned man wearing blue jeans and a black leather biker jacket, and smiled like a mountain lion. “Amongst other things.”

Gabriella gasped.

The stranger turned his attention to her, his eyes widened.

“I didn’t expect to find you here.”

“But, you’re dead.” Gabriella almost whispered.

Troy glanced at the girl behind me. “You know him?”

My eyes returned to the great cat that was now lounging on the pool deck.

The stranger’s eyes didn’t move from Gabriella. “I should hope she’d recognize her own father.”

Troy’s eyes darted from Gabriella, to the stranger, and back to Gabriella.

“Your father?”

I glanced at Gabriella in time to see her nod. Her eyes were as big as plates.

“How?”

More snuffling came from the darkness beyond the pool; it seemed to be coming from everywhere.

Kelsi looked at the stranger, Gabriella’s father. “You took out the cell phone tower.”

He shook his head. “Not us. Them.” He nodded towards the darkness.

“They’re not with you?” Ryan sounded worried.

The stranger gave a short, harsh laugh. “Hardly, pup.”

“It’s just the two of you?” Jason’s voice sounded calm as he spoke.

Gabriella’s father regarded him, and nodded.

There was a crash as something threw itself against the far gate.

The cat was on its feat in an instant, growling towards the darkness.

The stranger too faced the gate. “They’re bold when they’re hungry.”

“What are?” It was Troy who asked.

“Things that were best left buried.”

I heard a click to my right, and found Joey holding a small pistol. I looked from his hand to his eyes. Rage filled them.

Ryan too had turned at the sound; no one else seemed to have noticed.

The man in the leather coat took several steps towards Gabriella, sniffing the air as he went. She took half as many away from him.

“You reek of wolf, child.”

Gabriella glared at him. “I don’t think this is the right company to be discussing that in.”

The stranger turned then, looking at each of us in turn, his eyes lingered for a moment on the weapon Joey was attempting to conceal. “Perhaps not, but who would believe them?”

“That’s not the point.” Kelsi hissed at him.

Another crash came from the gate.

The man smirked at her. “No. It’s not. The point is that we’re about to be over run.”

There was another crash. Snuffling sounds seemed to fill the night.

“What do you suggest we do, then?” Ryan was glaring at him as he spoke.

Gabriella’s father gave another short, harsh laugh as he unzipped his jacket revealing bare flesh beneath. “Why, we fight.”

There was one last crash and we all heard the broken gate fall to the ground.

The snuffling grew closer, and shapes moved in the darkness. They shambled forward, some moving on all fours, some on their hind legs, others alternating between the two. The scent of rotting meat was overpowering.

I saw Joey raise his pistol. The sound was deafening. One of the things in the darkness staggered and gave a sound halfway between a yelp and a scream.

The rest charged.

I stood paralyzed by fear and nausea as the large cat pounced into their midst, followed by a wolf. Where the Hell had the wolf come from?

Ryan was between me and the things. As I watched a pelt of snow white hair grew from his back in the time it took for my heart to beat twice. One of the things lunged towards him and he swept it away with a hand that now sported claws.

I saw Joey raise his gun again, but this time he was aiming at my brother’s back.

I shouted and shoved his arm just as he pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the cat instead, causing it to roar.

He glared at me and tried to release his arm from my grasp. I beat the back of his hand against a chair, forcing his hand open. The gun fell to the ground.

I dove for the firearm. So did Joey. My hand closed around it first and I rolled away from him.

I heard a scream and turned to see one of that one of the things had Zeke. It was one of those moments that you always remember with perfect clarity. I could only see the upper part of its head; grey skin and mangy hair covered something dog like.

I raised the gun and pulled the trigger without even thinking.

The bullet tore into Zeke.

My heart stopped. The gun fell from my hands.

The part of my mind that was still working saw Joey and Gabriella dive for it.

A shocked look was on Zeke’s face as he slumped backwards, the thing dragging him away.

I felt a strong hand close on my shoulder, and an arm wrap around my neck. Something sharp cut into my back.

I was pulled over backwards to see one of the things drooling over me and pulling me away from the others. I let it.

It drug me about twenty feet before I felt something sharp clamp around my ankle. I looked down and saw the shadow of the great cat as a ghostly white wolf leapt over me.

The thing that had been dragging me away released me. My vision swam, darkness threatened to swallow my mind, but I held it back.

I had to find Zeke. I shook the cat from my leg and crawled back towards the others.

There was another gunshot, followed by a roar of pain, and another.

One of the things went flying over me, thrown by a half-man monstrosity that was wearing what was left of Troy’s swimsuit.

There was a pile of bodies twitching on the ground, but I couldn’t find Zeke.

There was one last gunshot and everything went silent. I looked up to see Gabriella holding the gun, one of the things fell away from her, a whole through its head.

Joey lunged for the gun, knocking Gabriella from her feet and sending the gun skittering across the pool deck. It stopped at Ryan’s feet.

He bent down and picked it up. He fumbled with it for a few moments before popping the cylinder open and allowing the last bullet to fall into his hand. He hissed as it struck his flesh, and turned dropped the bullet as though it had burned him.

“Silver.”

Troy was beside me then, helping me up and into a chair.

I looked around, Kelsi was helping Jason into another of the chairs, it looked like he’d been shot in the leg. Zeke was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Zeke?”

Gabriella was busy tying Joey up with the pool hose.

The lights came back on.

I looked around at the bodies. Zeke wasn’t amongst them; also… the things seemed to be melting.

I turned around. Jesse was huddled under the table, his eyes wide.

“Where’s Zeke?”

Troy caught my chin and turned my head to face him. “I don’t know.”

Gabriella’s father and the large black cat padded back into the pool enclosure.

“They’re routed. For now.”

I faced him. “Where’s Zeke?”

He met my eyes for an instant, and then looked away shaking his head.

“He might still be alive.” Kelsi looked to Gabriella’s father.

“They don’t keep their prey alive.”

“Troy?” Gabriella motioned for the basketball star to take her place keeping watch on Joey.

She came to my side and took my hand.

I shot Zeke. I might have been the one who killed him. It was too horrible to deal with, so I didn’t. I pushed it down; there would be time to deal with it later. I refused have a breakdown in front of all these people, in front of the liquefying corpses of the things that had taken Zeke away.

I bottled up my fear and guilt and replaced them with a contained rage. My eyes focused on Joey.

“You.”

He looked at me, fear in his eyes.

I tried to stand, but found my injured ankle couldn’t take my weight.

Ryan rushed to my side, his eyes wide as he examined my ankle.

“You bit her?” He glared at the panther.

Gabriella’s father looked at us. “Would you prefer he let them drag her away for dinner?”

Ryan’s face blanched, his already pale skin going the color of fine china.

I glanced at my wound, not understanding what the big deal was at the time.

My rage had found a focal point, and I wasn’t about to let a bite deter me.

“You tried to shoot my brother.”

Joey glared at me.

My eyes turned to Jesse.

“Maybe this isn’t the best time to deal with this.” Troy said.

Gabriella’s father shook his head. “They’re cowards. They wouldn’t get the courage for another attack before sunrise, and they won’t come out during the day. Best deal with your hunter problem now.”

“Hunter?” Troy’s confusion was obvious.

Ryan nodded and approached Joey. “It’s not everyone who carries around silver bullets.”

He tossed the empty gun into Joey’s lap. “Those can’t have been cheap.”

“They weren’t.” Joey glared at my brother.

I would’ve kicked him if I’d been able to stand.

“Why did you try to shoot my brother?”

Joey snorted. “Because he’s a monster. And by the look of that leg, soon you will be too.”

Ryan hit him. In all my life I’d never seen Ryan so much as hurt a fly, but he hit Joey square in the face. I was almost certain he’d broken his nose.

“Don’t. Talk. About. My. Sister.”

Troy grabbed Ryan’s arm before he could land another blow.

“There, you see what you’re going to become.” Joey spit blood as he spoke.

I heard a whimper come from under the table.

Joey spit again before speaking again. “So, before you kill us, I think we have the right to know which one of you killed our parents.”


	5. Chapter 5

“What?” Kelsi, Troy, and Jason asked in unison.

“You heard me.”

“Uh… I’m going to go with none of us.” Troy said.

“Let me refresh your memories then. July 30, 2007. Baltimore, Maryland. Four dead bodies. Ring any bells?”

“Kelsi and I were both working here then. And those two didn’t even change until October.” Jason pointed at my brother and Troy.

“Right, so our parents get ripped apart by a werewolf, and then a string of murders start here, all just happening to coincide with the full moon. It’s all just a coincidence.”

A thought occurred to me. “Didn’t Ms. Darbus spend the summer at her niece’s in Baltimore?”

Ryan looked at me and then to Kelsi, the now almost familiar distant look falling over his features.

Kelsi looked stood up and approached Joey. “The wolf that killed your parents, did you see it?”

Joey shook his head.

“Then how do you know it was one of us?”

“I saw it.” The voice came from under the table.

We all turned to face Jesse.

Kelsi nodded and advanced on him. “What color was it?”

He tried to squirm further under the table.

“Kels, you’re scaring him.”

“His boyfriend shot Jason; he can live with a little fear.”

“Kelsi, I think I’ll live. And I really don’t want him wetting himself, that’s the last smell we need to add to this extravaganza of suck.” Jason looked nauseous as he spoke.

“Did Jason just use ‘extravaganza’ in a sentence?” Ryan sounded shocked.

“It was this week’s vocabulary word in English.” Troy chuckled.

“Ah.”

Kelsi took a step back, and Jesse looked calmer.

“I don’t know… grayish?”

“That must’ve been where she was turned.”

Ryan turned to look at Joey. “You’re too late then. She’s already dead.”

Joey laughed. “Like you’d kill one of your own.”

Ryan gave a hollow, bitter laugh.

In that instant all of Ryan’s odd behavior, all the secret looks he’d exchanged with Troy, Jason, and Kelsi, made sense.

“Ryan, you killed Ms. Darbus.” The words escaped my mouth before I knew I’d said them.

Ryan recoiled as though he’d been hit.

“Bitch deserved it.” Gabriella almost yelled.

I looked at her in shock. I hadn’t known she was capable of swearing.

Troy took Ryan’s hand and pulled him into a hug.

On some level, okay on many levels I was still in denial. Deep inside I was convinced that this was all just a horrible nightmare and that at any moment I’d wake up in Zeke’s arms. It was the only thing that kept me from collapsing.

“I… I’m sorry…” Ryan’s voice was a whisper, but it carried to us all in the silence.

I couldn’t look at him. Instead I took in the scene surrounding us. The bodies had decayed into nauseating green mucus, with only a few bones protruding. Jason sat on the chair, nursing his leg wound, a blackened hole in his leg. The stranger and the panther were nowhere to be seen.

“Gabriella, where did your father go?”

She looked around, surprise showing on her face.

“Please. You don’t seriously expect us to believe that?” Joey’s voice cut the silence.

Joey had a sneer on his face. “Assuming they aren’t lying and one of them isn’t our parents’ killer, than they’re covering for her.”

I looked at him. “My brother wouldn’t lie.”

He looked at me, and sighed. I could see whatever reserves of inner strength he’d been drawing on fail him.

“Let’s get this over with.”

Troy spoke over my brother’s shoulder. “Get what over with, exactly?”

“You’re going to kill us to protect yourselves. Don’t play games.”

“Uh. No we’re not.”

“You can’t let us go. We’ll hunt you down and kill you like the dogs you are.”

“Troy, what are we going to do with them?” Ryan pulled from his boyfriend’s arms and both boys looked at Kelsi.

“Uh… there really isn’t a precedent.”

“Do we take them to our parents?” Troy was at a loss.

Jason shook his head. “My dad might kill them. Especially for this.” He pointed at his wound.

“Or they’d turn them.” Kelsi was deep in thought as she spoke.

“Should we turn them then?” Ryan eyed Jesse as he spoke.

A whimper came from under the table.

Kelsi shook her head this time. “And how do we explain that? Just show up with two more and ask our parents to teach them? They’d invent mouth condoms for us or something.”

Troy and Ryan laughed.

“Uh… what about Gabriella and I? We know your secret too.”

Ryan came and sat down next to me, opposite Gabriella, a sad look on his face.

Gabriella took my hand. “Ms. Darbus bit me the night she killed Martha. In no more than a month I’ll be one of them anyway.”

I looked from her to Ryan. “But what about me?”

He pointed at my foot. “That’s a whole other can of worms.”

“But that wasn’t a wolf. That was a bobcat or something.”

He shook his head.

“So what. You mean next full moon I’m going to turn into a cat?”

“No, you’re going to turn into a cow.”

“What?” I was positive my shriek echoed off the mountains.

He rolled his eyes. “It was a joke, Sis. Just trying to lighten the mood.”

I punched him in the arm. “Don’t do that.”

“New moon, not full moon.” Kelsi said.

Ryan nodded. “Right. I forgot about that. Probably not next new moon either. These things take time.”

Okay. This was getting to be a bit too much. In review I’d just found out that my brother and all his friends were werewolves. The two new boys, who watched too much TV, were self-styled and ineffective werewolf hunters. I was now destined to turn into some sort of were-cat-thing. And, to top it all off, hideous creatures, the bodies of which were still rotting around me, had killed my boyfriend, who I’d shot.

I screamed until unconsciousness claimed me.

* * *

I awoke in my bed.

For a few brief moments I allowed myself to believe that it had all been a dream. Not a dream, but a nightmare.

I’d almost convinced myself when I attempted to roll over. Pain shot through my injured ankle.

I groaned.

Someone pressed a cool washcloth to my forehead.

My eyes opened to find Gabriella Montez staring at me.

I pushed her away and sat up. My head swam for a moment.

“What are you doing here? Where’s Ryan?” I screamed at her.

Gabriella blinked, shocked by my outburst.

I stared at her with all the hatred I could muster.

“Troy and Ryan are in the basement, guarding Joey and Jesse.”

“It all happened then?”

She nodded.

“And Zeke…?” I couldn’t finish the question, the words caught in my throat.

Gabriella shook her head.

Tears started to well up in my eyes.

Gabriella reached for my hand, but I snatched it away and glared at her through my tears.

“Get out.”

“Sharpay, you shouldn’t be alone right now.”

“Get out!” I flung the first thing that came to hand at her, a pillow.

I collapsed on my bed and cried. I heard my bedroom door open and close.

Zeke was dead. I’d shot him.

I tried to tell myself that it didn’t matter, that the things would’ve taken him whether I’d shot him or not. But Zeke was strong; he might have been able to escape if I hadn’t helped them.

I cried until there were no more tears. I sobbed until I was exhausted.

I cried until I fell asleep, but even unconsciousness didn’t free me.

The gun haunted my nightmares.

The first time through everything happened just as it did in real life.

The next time there was nothing attacking us. I saw myself pick the gun up off the ground, level it at Zeke, and shoot him.

I fired again and again. I fired more shots then the tiny gun could’ve held.

When the gun was at last empty I smelled his still cooling body, and I was filled with hunger.

Talons erupted from my hands, my perfect nails twisted into pink painted claws and I ripped into his corpse, shoveling the sweet taste of his flesh into my mouth.

I tried to scream. I tried not to stop. But all I could do was cry as I took yet another bite.

I heard a gunshot from behind me, and turned to see Joey standing over Ryan’s body, a smoking hole clean through my beautiful brother’s head.

He smirked. “I knew you’d end up like them.”

Joey leveled the gun at me, and fired.

I pounced out of the way and tackled him, sinking my teeth into his supple neck.

I sat upright in my bed. I was covered in sweat and sobbing.

I took a deep breath.

Maybe it was all a dream; maybe none of it had happened? I looked to my injured ankle, the bite marks were scabbed over, and each one of them seemed to laugh at me, at my brief moment of hope.

I heard voices shouting downstairs, but I didn’t care.

I turned and placed first my good foot, then the bad one on the ground.

I tested it, it hurt but I thought it could hold my weight.

I stood up and hobbled into the bathroom.

I looked in the mirror. I was still in my swimsuit from the night before. There were small wounds along my shoulder, where the creature had grabbed me. My makeup was ruined.

I sighed. It had all happened. There was no point denying it.

I made my way into the shower, and turned on the hot water.

I stripped off my swimsuit and climbed in. The water was almost scalding, but I didn’t care.

I washed my hair half a dozen times, and cleaned my wounds. I scrubbed every inch of my body, discovering a deep wound in my back. It didn’t hurt as much as it should have.

I eyed my Lady Schick. I picked it up. I’d heard stories on the news about kids that cut themselves. They said it helped them deal with their pain. I looked at the blades and thought about it.

I stared at the blades, and then I laughed. I’d have to cut my heart out to get rid of this pain, there was no way those puny things could help me with anything but the removal of leg hair.

This caused me to look at my legs. Stubble, eww. I lathered them up, and used the razor for its intended purpose, first my right leg, and then the left. It felt good to be able to focus on something so normal.

I turned off the shower and stepped onto the bath mat. Taking a pink towel from the rack I dried myself. I pulled the towel away, and noticed dark splotches on it. I sighed, nothing takes at blood stains.

I dropped the towel in the trash can and stepped into my room. I shivered as the cool air from my room struck my body.

I approached my chest of drawers and dug out an old sweat suit I hadn’t worn in years; something I wouldn’t care about getting a little blood on.

The shouting downstairs had stopped. Maybe they’d gotten fed up and killed the two hunters. I found that I didn’t feel anything at the thought.

I was more disturbed that I didn’t feel anything, than I was about the very real possibility that my brother and his boyfriend had murdered two people in my house.

I felt empty inside, and it scared me. Which was strange, how could I be scared if I felt nothing?

I hobbled to the door and opened it.

I closed the door behind me and made my way to the top of the stairs. I eyed them for a moment, and decided that trying them was a bad idea.

“Ryan, where are your crutches?”

I heard nothing.

“Ryan!”

He appeared from the living room.

“Shar, you shouldn’t be up. You’re hurt.”

“Don’t tell me what I should and shouldn’t do. Just get me your crutches.”

He looked about to say something, but then thought better of it. He sprinted up the stairs and passed me.

I turned and followed him with my eyes as he raced into his room. He returned a few moments later with the steel objects.

He handed them to me. I took a few experimental steps, it seamed easy enough.

I turned again towards the stairs.

“Do you want some help, stairs are tricky.”

I didn’t even look at him.

He was right, the stairs were tricky, but I managed. I would be damned before I’d accept anyone’s help at that moment.

He followed me down. When we reached the base I saw Kelsi and Gabriella watching me from the awning into the living room.

I shot them both glares and they turned away.

I made my way towards them, desiring the comfort of the couches that lay beyond them.

“So where’s Troy? Disposing of the bodies?”

Ryan gasped. “Don’t say that, Sharpay. Don’t even joke about that.”

I grunted as I passed the girls and made my way to the nearest sofa. I collapsed onto it and looked around the room.

Jason was sitting in the couch opposite me, his leg propped up on the Ottoman. He gave me a grim smile and nod.

Kelsi came back in and took a seat next to Jason.

Gabriella came in and took a seat on the couch nearest me, her eyes fixed on me.

“What?” I snapped at her, perhaps with a bit more venom then I intended.

“Do you want to watch a movie, or something?”

“What I want is, in this order, food, and for you all to stop looking at me like I’m some fucking china doll that’s going to break at any moment.”

Ryan entered the room then carrying a pizza box.

He handed it to me, and I flipped it open. “This pizza is covered in meat, Ryan. You know I don’t eat meat.”

He looked at me. “It’s all we ordered.”

I gave an exaggerated sigh and examined it. I raised a slice to my nose and gave it an experimental sniff.

It did smell good; maybe just one bite.

After I finished the pizza I looked up to seem them all grinning at me. “What?”

Ryan laughed. “You’re a pig.”

“You should talk.”

He smiled. “Fair enough.”

I looked around the room. There was no evidence of Troy or the two from Baltimore.

“So if you didn’t kill them, which I think is a mistake. Where are they?”

“Tied up in the basement, Troy’s keeping an eye on them right now.” Ryan looked from me to Kelsi. “Which reminds me, isn’t it almost your shift?”

Kelsi sighed and stood up.

She headed for the basement, and several minutes later Troy came up the stairs. He gave me only a glance before wrapping Ryan in a hug.

“So what are we going to do?” Jason was the first to break the silence.

Gabriella shook her head. Taking her eyes from me for the first time she focused instead on Ryan. “We can’t kill them. We can’t let them go. We can’t turn them.”

“And we can’t keep them locked down there forever.” Troy said.

“Why can’t you kill them? They’d do it to you in a heartbeat.” I looked at Troy and Ryan as I spoke.

“For starters, how about the fact that killing them is wrong?” Ryan’s tone was calm, but his eyes were angry.

I snorted.

“It’ll look bad if they disappear. There’ve been enough deaths at East High. We can’t afford the attention.”

I snorted again. “Too late for that, isn’t it? It won’t be long before people realize Zeke is missing. What’s two more?”

“A lot, Sis.”

“They’re right, Sharpay. We already escaped once when these four caught Darbus, but the police are still looking for the serial killer.”

“No one will miss them. Their parents are already dead.” Jason said.

Ryan spun to face him. “No. We are not killing them. That option is now officially off the table.”

Jason backed down.

It was strange. The fashionable boy who used to follow me around like a poodle seemed to be in charge; my brother, in charge of a bunch of werewolves. The idea was so ridiculous that I had to laugh.

“We should call my parents.” Troy said.

“Our parents will kill them.” Jason looked confused.

“Not the whole pack. Just _my_ parents.”

“I don’t know, Troy. Your dad has a temper.” Ryan faced his boyfriend as he spoke.

“But my mom doesn’t. And we’re only going to be able to hide so much of this from them? How long is it before my parents find out about her?” He pointed at me as he spoke.

“Excuse me. I have a name.” I was not about to be spoken of like I wasn’t in the room.

Ryan nodded. “Call them.”

Troy pulled out his phone and left the room.

I focused my eyes on Ryan. “I’ve been patient up until now, Ryan. But what the Hell is this about Troy’s parents? You owe me some explanations, and you owe them to me now.”

He took the seat next to Gabriella and looked at me. “You’re right. Gabriella deserves to hear it too.”

He told me then. He told me everything. Troy came back into the room at some point, at by the end of the story he was holding my brother as Ryan cried.

When he was done I hobbled over to him, the crutches forgotten, and hugged him. The things he’d been through. I should have been angry at everything he’d kept from me, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t be.


	6. Chapter 6

There was a knock on the door. Troy left my brother in my arms and went to answer it.

“Alright, Troy, what’s going on?” Mr. Bolton’s voice echoed into the living room.

“You’d better come in and sit down first.”

“Troy, honey, what’s wrong?” His mother’s voice grew closer as she spoke.

“You didn’t get Ryan pregnant, did you?” Troy’s father laughed at his own joke.

“I wish.”

Ryan pulled away from me and wiped the tears from his eyes.

They stepped into the room. Mr. Bolton’s eyes lingered on me.

Troy’s mother rushed to Jason. “Oh. What happened to you?”

“I was shot.” Jason’s mastery of the obvious never ceases to be amazing.

“What?” Troy’s father looked from me to Jason. “Silver bullets? You’re kidding?”

Jason shook his head.

“Mom, Dad, calm down. Let me explain. Um… Okay… let me figure out how to explain.”

Troy’s mother took a seat at Jason’s side and began examining his wound.

“We’ve got some problems.” Ryan said.

Troy’s father regarded him. “So I can see.”

“We have two maybe three small problems, two large problems, and a catastrophe. What order do you want them in?”

Troy’s father rested his head in his hands. “Well, since you all seem to be alive.” He looked around. “Kelsi’s okay.”

The junior werewolves all nodded.

“Let’s start with the small ones and work our way up.”

Ryan nodded. “Okay. First, Jason’s been shot.”

Mr. Bolton just looked at my brother.

“Second, Gabriella’s father showed up last night. He’s not dead, and he’s a Nagual.”

What the Hell was a Nagual?

“You’re listing a Nagual as one of your small problems?”

Ryan nodded. “Third, his friend, or whatever, bit Sharpay.”

Troy’s parents both turned to look at me. I held my foot up so they could see the wound.

Mr. Bolton took a step away from me, looking at me like I was toxic.

Troy’s dad swallowed, and looked at Ryan again. “Okay. If those are the small problems. What are the large problems?”

“There are two new kids at school. Their parents were killed by Darbus; they followed the news stories here and are trying to hunt werewolves. They’re the one’s who shot Jason.” The words came out of Ryan’s mouth almost faster than I could follow.

“And they’re tied up in the basement.” Troy added.

Troy’s father shook his head. “I was afraid hunters might show up. The story was in the news for too long.” He turned to look at his son. “What’s the catastrophe?”

“Zeke’s dead.”

“What?” Troy’s mother stood as she spoke.

“Did one of you do it?” Troy’s father asked.

Troy shook his head.

“After Gabriella’s father showed up, we were attacked by… things. One of them drug him off, for food.” Ryan said.

Tears were welling up in my eyes again. I forced them down with a ragged sigh that sounded more like a sob then I intended.

I met Mrs. Bolton’s eyes. She gave me a sad smile.

“What are you talking about? What type of things?”

“I don’t know. They smelled like rotten meat, and their bodies rotted away when the sun came up. There was nothing left.”

“How do you know Zeke is dead?” Mrs. Bolton asked.

“Gabriella’s father said they didn’t take live prey, or something like that.”

All eyes in the room turned towards Gabriella.

She gave a weak smile. “Don’t look at me. Until last night I thought he was dead. That’s what I was told.”

“We need to call the rest of the pack.” Mr. Bolton said.

“No, Dad, you can’t.”

“They have to be told, Troy. You can’t seriously think you’re going to be able to keep Jason’s leg a secret.”

“But they’ll kill them.” Troy said.

“Maybe, but they tried to kill you.”

“Dad, they lost their parents, we can’t kill them for being idiots.”

“Troy, they know too much. We can’t let them go.” His mother said.

“What if they promised not to tell anyone and forget this whole hunting thing?” It seemed like a reasonable idea as I said it.

“They won’t.” Jason said.

“How can you be sure?” Ryan asked.

“If they hate our kind enough, they’ll risk anything to hurt us. Even if we turn them theirs no guarantee they won’t give us all over to the government.” Mr. Bolton said.

The phone rang.

Ryan went into the kitchen to answer it.

“Oh, hello Mrs. Baylor.”

It was Zeke’s mom.

“No. I haven’t seen him since last night.”

Ryan paused.

“Okay, Mrs. Baylor. I’ll tell him to call you the minute I see him.”

He hung up the phone and came back into the room.

Troy’s dad sighed. “It won’t be long before she calls the police. They’ll question all of you, and probably me too.”

Ryan nodded. “We need to get our stories straight then. This is going to be messy.”

“One of you has been shot, and Sharpay’s got that bite on her ankle. If the police find out about either they’ll know you were involved. How long before he’ll be able to walk on that leg, Lucille?”

“I don’t know.”

Mr. Bolton shook his head.

“And, of course, you’re holding two boys hostage in your basement.”

“Dad, if they aren’t in school on Tuesday, there’ll be even more questions.” Troy said.

Mr. Bolton looked confused. “You mean Monday.”

“No school. It’s Martin Luther King day.” Ryan said.

“Boys, why don’t you go get Kelsi, and the two hunters?” Mrs. Bolton asked.

Ryan and Troy nodded and headed towards the basement door.

Troy’s father looked at his wife. “Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

She nodded.

Kelsi came through the door followed by Ryan, who was carrying Joey over his shoulder.

“Ow. Put me down you freak.” Joey sounded tired as he spoke.

Troy followed carrying Jesse in his arms.

Gabriella stood up. Ryan dumped Joey on the couch; Troy was a bit gentler with Jesse.

Troy’s father regarded them, and laughed. “These are the hunters?”

Ryan nodded.

“Are they even old enough to shave?”

“They’re old enough to shoot.” Jason said as Kelsi took a seat on the armrest at his side.

“Who the Hell are you?” Joey spat as he said it.

“Hey, that’s expensive carpeting.” Ryan glared at the boy.

“Mr. and Mrs. Bolton, allow me to introduce Joey Johnson and Jesse Jones.” I indicated each boy as I spoke his name.

Jesse looked around the room, his eyes filled with fear.

Joey focused on Troy’s father, hatred filling his eyes.

“I don’t suppose we can convince you boys to forget that any of this happened?” Mr. Bolton asked.

Joey snorted in response.

Jesse pulled his legs up and curled in the corner of the couch. Joey had positioned himself between Jesse and the bulk of the room.

I observed their interaction, the glimmer of an idea forming.

“You’ve put us in a tough position. We don’t want to hurt you, but we can’t let you go with that chip on your shoulder.” Troy’s father said.

“Chip on our shoulder? You’re kidding right? You fucking freaks kill our parents, and then accuse us of having a chip on our shoulder? Does being a werewolf make you an idiot?”

“We never did anything to you, son. The woman who killed your parents has already paid for her crimes.”

“Right, I’m sure.”

“If any of us were the one who’d killed your parents, do you honestly believe you’d still be alive to have this conversation?” Troy’s mother asked, looking Joey in the eye.

“Just because I don’t know what your game is, doesn’t mean we aren’t being played.” Joey glared at her.

“What if they’re not lying?” It was the first intelligible words Jesse had spoken the night before, I was certain.

Joey’s eyes softened. He turned to look at his boyfriend.

“But what if they are, Jess?”

“Ryan, Gabriella, between the two of you how many of your classes is Jesse in?”

Gabriella looked at me. “He’s in all of my classes this semester.”

I smiled. “Then I think we have a solution.”

Everyone turned to look at me; I do so love being the center of attention.”

“Uh oh. I know that look.” Kelsi eyed me like she’d eye a cobra.

“The two of them stay here for now. We escort them to and from school. And if Joey tries anything… well… one of us is in with Jesse at all times.”

Jesse’s eyes widened.

Joey attempted to place his body further between his boyfriend and the room.

“So we keep them hostage right in the open?” Ryan sounded impressed.

Gabriella nodded. “She’s right. It won’t work forever, but it’ll work until we can think up something better.”

“Now hold on. I don’t think that this sounds like a good idea.” Troy’s father attempted to exert his paternal influence on the entire room.

“Does it sound worse than two more missing kids?” Troy asked.

Troy’s mother finished cleaning Jason’s wound and stood; walking over to me she took a seat and examined my ankle, distracting everyone from the issue at hand.

“How does it look?” Mr. Bolton asked.

She looked into my eyes. “This just happened early this morning?”

I nodded.

“It’s healing well, too well. She’ll definitely turn.”

“Which means what, exactly?”

“How’s your yoga dear?”

Ryan guffawed; there was no other word for it. “Sharpay, do yoga?”

I shot him a glare.

Troy’s mother turned to look at Gabriella. “Do you have any way of contacting your father?”

Gabriella shook her head.

She looked at me again. “Well, hopefully it won’t be too much different from what we go through, but we should have some time before you change.”

“Right. We can cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now we need to work on what we’re going to say about Zeke.” Mr. Bolton said.

* * *

Jason and Kelsi called their parents to let them know they were staying the night at our house.

Troy’s mother did the best she could to clean and treat my wounds before she and Mr. Bolton left. He couldn’t afford to be at our house when the police came around, it would raise too many questions.

Joey and Jesse were returned to the basement for the night. Ryan, Troy, and Kelsi took turns standing guard.

Gabriella went home to see if she could pry any details about her father out of the mother who’d always told her he was dead.

The nightmares greeted me as I drifted off to sleep.

Images of hideous gray skinned creatures carrying Zeke off and eating him, myself among them.

Then my subconscious played a perverse game of Russian roulette. I was forced to watch as I shot first my brother, then Troy, then Kelsi, and finally Gabriella.

“I forgive you.” Was all Gabriella said after I shot her, before she fell to the ground, green blood pouring from her wound.

After that I passed into deep sleep, beyond the reach of dreams.

I woke up early Sunday morning, and found that my ankle already felt much better.

I took another long shower, forcing all thoughts of Zeke and my nightmares from my mind. There was too much to do to allow myself to dwell on the past, even the near past.

I chose my clothes for the day, careful that they would cover all of my wounds, and put them on.

I kicked the crutched beneath my bed with my good foot, and made my way downstairs with only a slight limp.

I found Jason and Kelsi asleep on a couch in the living room as I passed through on my way to the kitchen.

I checked the empty pizza boxes, finding a few cold slices I forced them down with a glass of orange juice.

I went to the phone and called my parents.

I told them the sob story I’d concocted before about how there were two new boys at school who’d been kicked out by their parent’s for being gay, and how they were living in a horrible apartment and couldn’t even afford to eat. By the time I was done my mother insisted that we take them in and even my father was willing to view it as an investment in the youth of America.

After that was taken care of, I grabbed a bottle of pain killers from a cabinet and walked into the living room. My pleading hadn’t been quiet, so I wasn’t surprised to see Jason and Kelsi awake.

“How’s your leg?”

“A little better.” Jason mumbled.

“Here.” I tossed the pills, and in a tribute to his reflexes he caught them.

“What are these for?”

“So you can try and hide it from your parents.”

Kelsi nodded at me.

I made my way downstairs to find Troy sleeping and Ryan watching the sleeping young hunters while playing with Troy’s hair. Joey had sworn not to fall asleep the night before, but even he couldn’t resist forever.

“I cleared it with Daddy; they can live here for the rest of the semester.”

“What did you tell him, Sharpay?” Ryan asked.

“Oh, don’t get your beret in a bunch. I made up a sob story.”

He nodded.

“So you and Troy take Jesse here back to their apartment and get their stuff. I’ll clean out one the guest rooms.”

“A guest room?”

“Duh. It’ll look a little weird if we keep them tied up in the basement all the time.”

“Oh. Yeah.”

“Okay, you need to get a good night’s sleep. But there’s no time for that now.”

I tapped Joey. He awoke with a start.

“What? Where’d you come from?”

“Upstairs, now be quiet or you’ll wake your boyfriend.”

“What do you want?”

“What’s Jesse’s favorite color?”

“What?”

“You heard me, and try to keep it down.”

“Uh… green.”

“Fabulous. Well, try to get some more beauty sleep, you need it. Toodles, boys.” I waved as I went up the stairs.

“Is she always like that?” Joey whispered.

“You have no idea.” Ryan whispered back as I closed the door behind me.

* * *

I was in the middle of renovating the green guest room when the doorbell rang.

Troy and Ryan were already off with Jesse, and Joey was in the living room with Kelsi. We’d extracted a promise that he’d be on his best behavior.

I made my way downstairs and opened the door to find a pair of police officers.

“Is there something wrong officers?”

The taller one spoke first. “Are you Sharpay Evans?”

“Yes, sir.”

“May we come in, miss?”

I held the door open and allowed them to enter.

“Do you know the current whereabouts of one Zeke Baylor, Miss Evans?”

“Zekey-pooh? No. I haven’t heard from him since he left the party Friday. Is something wrong?”

“And what party would that be?”

“We had a big party at our parent’s country club to celebrate the state championship.”

They asked more questions then. They questioned Kelsi, Jason, and Joey too.

We were all nervous when they led Joey away, they insisted on questioning each of us alone. I hoped I’d been right about him.

When he returned the two police officers told us that they’d be in touch, and left us each a card with their number on it in case we remembered anything else.

That they didn’t draw their guns on us and call for backup I took as a good sign.

Jason was the first to speak after the cops drove away. “What did you tell them?”

Joey glared at him. “Just what you all wanted me to.”

“That’s a good boy.” I smiled at him.

“I’m not a dog, don’t treat me like one.”

“We could fix that you know.” Jason said.

Joey’s face went white.

Kelsi cuffed the back of his head.

“Ow. What?”

“There’s enough Oborotni in town as it is.” She said.

“Obor-what-ny?” I asked?

“Oborotni, it’s our word for ourselves.”

“Oh. What’s our word for ourselves?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. We call you Nagual.”

“Sounds Mexican.”

“Middle American, yes.”

There were questions I wanted to ask, but Kelsi seemed to read my face and held up her hand.

“Not right now, Sharpay. Not in front of him.” She pointed at Joey. “He knows too much already.”

“You just wait until we escape, then you’ll see what I know.”

“Good point. We’ll have to put that off as long as we can.” I walked into the kitchen and looked for the yellow pages.

Finding them I called around until I found a home security company willing to work on weekends, for time and a half.

I had them come right over and start installing bars on all the windows, starting with the guest room. I also had them install a new door and a lock that worked from the outside and upgrade the home security system.

They were confused by some of my requests, but one look at Daddy’s platinum card and they didn’t ask questions.

Ryan, Troy, and Jesse returned that afternoon. Troy’s truck was riding low with the weight of the boys’ possessions.

“Did you get everything?”

Troy shook his head. “We left the furniture and a few other things.”

“Upstairs, third door on the right.”

Ryan and Troy carted the things upstairs while I supervised.

Once the room was ready we took them up to it.

“Here’s your gilded cage boys. I hope it’s comfortable enough.”

Jesse took a step in, his eyes daring around like a scared animal. “It’s bigger then our apartment.”

“The bathroom is through there.” I pointed. “I’ve had bars put on the window, and the door locks from the outside. And in case you have any other bright ideas about getting out, we have a state of the art security system.”

Joey rolled his eyes and took a seat on the bed, eyeing the TV like it was going to attack him.

“Well, you boys relax.”

We left them in the room. There were three keys to the door; I gave one each to Ryan and Troy.

We went downstairs, my stomach growled like a mountain lion as we went.

“God. I’m starving.”

“Pizza?” Troy asked.

“No. Chinese I think.” Ryan said.

“Whatever, just make sure there’s plenty of it.”

Kelsi wrote down our orders, and went upstairs to get Jesse and Joey’s.

Ryan placed the order using his credit card.

“How long do you think we can keep them like that?” Kelsi asked.

I shrugged. “As long as we have Jesse we can control Joey.”

“How can you be sure?”

I gave her a grin. “He’s the only thing Joey cares about more then getting revenge.”


	7. Chapter 7

Monday was uneventful. The boys stayed in their room and didn’t try anything. Tuesday would be the real test of my theory. There were several periods in which none of us would see Joey; we had to hope he wouldn’t try anything stupid.

Monday night was the first night of the full moon for January. Troy and Ryan went to Troy’s house to help Gabriella with her first change, or whatever, so Kelsi and Jason came over to help me with guard duty.

My alarm went off at 5:40 Tuesday morning. I got up and showered, and banged on the captives’ door to make sure they were up before going downstairs for a light breakfast.

Someone had cooked up a large quantity of bacon and eggs. Under normal circumstances I tried to avoid animal products, but these weren’t normal circumstances. I tried to resist, but the scent of the bacon was too much. My light breakfast became a decadent feast.

Ryan and I unlocked the boys’ room and led them to our cars. We’d decided to separate them rather then try and cram four people in either of our cars. Ryan took Joey in his Mustang, while I unlocked my car door for Jesse.

Jesse sat in silence and fidgeted with his backpack.

“Ready for school?” I asked.

“Uh… not really. I didn’t finish much of my homework.”

“Well, I suppose it was a busy weekend.”

“Yeah.”

When we arrived at school I walked with Jesse to homeroom where we met with Gabriella.

I spent the morning avoiding Chad and Taylor. I imagined they’d both heard of Zeke’s disappearance by now, and wasn’t up to answering their questions.

The auditions for Kelsi’s new musical were that day during free period.

Gabriella brought Jesse with her, forcing him to take a seat in the front row. He spent the period with his nose buried in a book attempting to catch up on his homework. Well, except during Joey’s audition.

A number of freshmen tried out. Most of them were horrid. Maybe three had some actual skill, but even they weren’t up to the high standards Ryan and I had set.

Gabriella’s audition was unnervingly flawless, and I could tell by the way Mrs. Jewls was smiling at her that I’d have to compete against her in the callbacks, again.

Even worse I could tell that Kelsi had written the part for her.

The musical had three leads, one female and two male. It was about a love triangle, two boys fighting over the same girl discover that a budding romance between each other. Kelsi claimed to have been inspired by Ryan, Troy, and Gabriella, and had written the parts accordingly.

After the fiasco that was _Twinkle_ _Town_ , I didn’t try to alter Kelsi’s vision too much for my audition. I made just a few essential changes to her slow paced sound. For a composer who’d objected to playing slow music at Lava Springs over the summer, she wrote a lot of elevator music.

Joey’s voice surprised me. He was good, there was no denying that. His vocal range was identical to Troy’s but much better practiced. Troy wore the hat he’d stolen from Ryan for his audition. His voice wasn’t up to Joey’s, but he put far more passion into the lyrics and already knew the choreography for the part. An objective observer would’ve found the two evenly matched. I wasn’t in the mood to be objective, not when the boy who tried to shoot my brother in the back three days earlier was involved.

Ryan’s audition was fabulous, of course.

After school let out Ryan and Troy too Joey home. Jesse had scholastic decathlon practice with Gabriella and Taylor, so I spent the afternoon in the auditorium preparing for the inevitable call back.

When we arrived home I was surprised to find Joey in the living room with Troy and Ryan.

“You let him out of the cage?” I asked.

Troy shrugged.

Ryan smiled at me. “Reward for good behavior.”

Jesse followed me into the living room, and sat down next to his boyfriend.

“Are you two going to Troy’s tonight?”

“No, Kelsi’s mom is on first change watch tonight.” Troy said.

“How’d she do last night?”

“As well as could be expected; I just hope she doesn’t get fleas.” Troy laughed as he said it.

I rolled my eyes and went into the kitchen to look for a snack. The bacon from that morning was gone, devoured by Ryan and Troy no doubt. Sighing to myself I picked up the phone and called Domino’s.

“What do you four want on your pizza?” I poked my head into the living room.

“Meat.” Came Ryan and Troy’s synchronized response.

I rolled my eyes.

Joey and Jesse didn’t speak.

“And you two? I don’t have all day here.”

Jesse looked surprised. “Uh… mushrooms?”

I nodded and looked at Joey, he said nothing.

“Fine, have it your way. Well, his way, whatever.”

I ordered three large meatlovers’ and a large mushroom.

* * *

The next morning was a repeat of the previous day.

I forced Jesse to come check the callback list with me. Callbacks were scheduled for that Friday, and I was unsurprised but still furious to find that I’d be competing with Gabriella again.

The only other call back was Troy and Joey; Ryan’s audition guaranteed him a part in the production already.

“Can you imagine how awkward it’ll be if Joey gets the part?”

“What do you mean?” Jesse asked.

“The final scene.”

“Uh… I haven’t read the script.”

“It’s a story of how two boys fall in love, Jesse; and I don’t know about you, but I can’t really see my brother and your boyfriend kissing.”

“Kissing?” Jesse blushed.

I looked around the hallway, making certain no one was nearby. “I can see it now, the story of a whirlwind romance between a werewolf and the hunter who tried to kill him.”

Jesse looked worried. “That’d never happen, would it?”

I laughed and elbowed him. “God Jesse, don’t get all jealous. I’ve seen the way Joey looks at you; you have nothing to worry about.”

He gave a nervous laugh.

The warning bell rang. “Come on, let’s get to homeroom.”

* * *

The rest of the week, until the callbacks, was uneventful. Gabriella had no luck in tracking down her father; the two hunters didn’t try anything stupid, and though we checked the news everyday there were no reports of anyone else disappearing or being attacked at our near Lava Springs.

Whatever the things were that had taken my Zeke away from me, they were lying low. My anger at those… those things rose each day. I was resolved to see them dead, and grateful to the cat that had bit me that I would soon have the strength to do something about it.

But left with nothing to do but worry about the callbacks, my anger at the creatures fueled my anger at Gabriella. I was a total bitch to her all week.

My anger management issues didn’t help me in the callbacks either. I forgot a verse half way through and even my exquisite acting skills couldn’t keep my rage hidden.

Gabriella got the part. I was cast as understudy and as a minor part otherwise.

To make matters worse Joey beat out Troy. Even Kelsi seemed upset about that. This musical was not going the way I had intended at all.

* * *

“Um… could you slow down a little?”

I blinked. It was the first time Jesse had initiated a conversation with me.

I glanced at the speedometer, I was going over 90.

I took a calming breath and removed my foot from the gas pedal, tapping the break.

“Do you… do you want to talk about it?”

“Everything was perfect until that little whore moved here.”

“She doesn’t seem so bad.”

I snorted. “For a werewolf you think killed your parents.”

“I… I don’t really think that.”

We drove in silence for a while. I considered lowering the top to let the wind whip through my hair, but opted for rolling down the window instead. I wasn’t even paying attention to where we were going, I needed to think and driving helped me.

“Uh, where are we going?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Won’t people be worried?”

He was right. Ryan would understand my need to drive after a day like that, but Joey would be getting jumpy.

I pulled out my cell phone and called Ryan.

“Hey, Sis.” He answered.

“I’m going for a drive; I don’t know when I’ll be home.”

“Don’t you think you should drop Jesse off first?”

“No. I need someone to talk to.” I hung up and turned the phone off before he could respond. “There, problem solved.”

“You’re kind of scary, do you know that?”

“I’m aware.”

“It’s just a musical, there’s still one more.”

I slammed on the breaks. Jesse put out his arms to avoid bashing his head into the dashboard.

“Just a musical? There’s no such thing. I’ve starred in eighteen productions, Jesse, and if it wasn’t for Gabriella it’d be twenty.”

He looked at me, fear in his eyes, and nodded.

I glanced down the street we were stopped on and spotted a Starbucks.

“Do you want coffee? I want coffee.”

He followed my gaze to the coffee shop and nodded again.

“Fabulous.”

I parked and we went in. I ordered a tall caffè mocha and a volcano brownie. Jesse tried to get away with just ordering a chai tea latte.

“Uh uh. You’re scrawny. Get food.”

He ordered a blueberry muffin to go with it. I paid with Daddy’s credit card and took a seat.

He waited at the register for our drinks and sat down across from me.

“Is this really about Gabi?” He asked.

“Who else would it be about?”

“Uh… Zeke?”

When the Hell did this guy get so damn insightful.

“What makes you say that?”

“It’s only been a week. A week tonight. I just think that if I ever lost Joey…”

“Yeah, well news flash, I’m not you.”

He nodded and picked at his muffin.

“We’re not leaving until you eat all of that.”

He looked at me, trying to decide if I was kidding, and then took a bite of it.

“So, you don’t think Gabriella is responsible for your parent’s death anymore?”

He shook his head.

“What about the rest of us?”

“I don’t know. They’re not at all what I was expecting.”

“What were you expecting?”

“Not this.”

“So. You know a lot about all of us, but I still don’t know much about you.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s me prompting you to share, Jesse. And the truth this time, no more Colorado.”

He nodded. “Alright, no more Colorado. What do you want to know?”

“How did you two meet?”

“We grew up together. His family lived next door, and we were born in the same hospital. We used to play together all the time when we were kids; our parents enrolled us in the same dance class.”

“You dance?”

He laughed. “Not in a long time.”

“When did you know you were gay?”

“I think I knew a long time before he did. In junior high I fell in love with him, and confessed my feelings. He didn’t talk to me for a long time after that, which wasn’t hard because we didn’t have many classes together anymore. I thought that my being gay had ruined our friendship, so I went into the closet. I convinced myself that I’d never felt that way about him. I hated myself. When we started high school I tried dating girls. I tried dating a lot of girls. I spent every night praying to God that I would find the one who could turn me.”

“But you never did.”

He nodded. “I even had sex with two of them, thinking about him the whole time. It was, and don’t take this the wrong way, disgusting and horrible.”

I smiled and he continued.


	8. Chapter 8

My name is Jesse “IQ” Jones, and somehow Sharpay convinced me to write this chapter for her, because she didn’t want to deal with writing an embedded narrative herself.

* * *

It was the spring of my sophomore year. It’d been over two years since my whispered proclamation of love to Joey. It’d been over two years since the love of my life had spoken to me.

My latest girlfriend, Kelly, had just broken up with me. Well, that’s what I called it. I’d been trying with her, I really had. We even had sex a few times, but I guess my lack of enthusiasm drove her away. I caught her in bed with the captain of the school golf team.

The worst part was that the only thing I remembered from that moment was his naked body; it’s seared into my memory.

I walked out of her room, out of her house, and tried to walk out of her life. I never wanted to speak to her again, but that easier said then done. She was the president of the chemistry club, and on the school’s scholastic decathlon team with me.

She apologized to me.

I tried to stay mad at her, but couldn’t. In my heart I knew I’d been leading her on, been using her, and I had to admit that the golf boy did seem to like her.

I even found myself having lunch with them twice a week.

It was one day at lunch when she confronted me, after her boyfriend had gone off to practice.

“You’re gay, aren’t you?” She whispered it, but there was no need, the tables nearest us had already cleared out, lunch was almost over.

There was no use in denying it any longer.

“How could you tell?”

She smiled and placed her hand on mine. “The way you always closed your eyes during sex. You’d never look at me.”

“I’m sorry.”

She squeezed my hand. “Don’t be. It’s not your fault.”

“Isn’t it?”

She shook her head and took her hand away.

“So, if you don’t mind my asking. Who were you thinking about?”

“What?”

“When we… you know.”

My cheeks started burning. “Uh… nobody.”

She raised her eyebrow. “Uh huh. Nobody.”

“Joey.”

“The guy that lives next door to you?”

I didn’t think it was possible, but my cheeks burned even hotter. I nodded.

“The one who’s in drama and choir?”

“Yeah.”

“Have you told him how you feel?”

“I don’t think that’s any of your business.”

She tried to take my hand again, but I pulled back.

“I just want to see you happy.”

* * *

I avoided Kelly for the rest of that week.

She didn’t bring it up the next week.

The next week was Single’s Awareness Day, also known as Valentine’s Day to those lucky enough to be in a relationship.

I opened my locker that morning, and something fluttered to the ground.

I knelt and picked it up, a red heart cut from construction paper.

There was no writing; I had no idea who it was from.

My heart fell, great, some other girl was interested in me.

At lunch there were two flowers taped to my locker, a red rose and a purple hyacinth.

There’s a language to flowers. I knew a single red rose meant ‘I love you,’ but I had no idea what the hyacinth meant.

I thrust the flowers into my locker and went to the library.

The answer was easy enough to find. Purple hyacinth means ‘I’m sorry.’ At least that’s what the website claimed.

I was even more confused then I’d been at the start of the day.

After last period I returned to my locker and found another red heart, this time with a note.

“Go to the auditorium after school.”

I didn’t recognize the handwriting, but only a boy could be that messy.

I stared at it. Someone had to be setting me up.

But what if they weren’t?

I shook my head. No, there was no way. Kelly must have told someone, and now the golf team or someone else was setting me up for a beat down.

I tore the note in half and dropped it in the trash before going home.

My phone rang, it was Kelly.

I thought for a moment before answering, but flipped it open at last.

“What?”

“Why didn’t you go to the auditorium?”

“This day is depressing enough without getting beaten up.”

“God IQ, you are such a boy.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?’

“Just that with as dense as men are, it’s a miracle gay guys ever have sex.”

“So you’re telling me it wasn’t a setup?”

“Not the way you seem to think.”

“Who did you tell, Kelly?”

“Nobody. Where are you now?”

“Home.”

“Good, stay there.”

“Actually I was thinking I’d go to a movie.”

“IQ, if you leave that house before I get there I will out you to the whole school.”

“Fine.” I snapped my phone shut.

Twenty minutes later there was a knock on my door.

I opened it expecting Kelly, instead I found Joey.

The boy I’d grown up with and fallen in love with. The boy I hadn’t spoken to in years. He was standing on my doorstep, in his choir tuxedo, holding a bouquet of pink roses, meaning, “Please believe me”.

I blinked, convinced I was hallucinating.

No, he was still there, an awkward smile on his face.

I leaned my head out the door and looked around, I saw Kelly’s car turn the corner at the end of the street, but no one else.

I looked at Joey again, his smile was faltering.

All capacity for coherent words vanished.

“Buh…”

“I’m sorry.” His smile was gone, replaced with a look of utter sincerity.

“You’re sorry?”

“I was a jerk to you.”

I nodded. “You were a jerk to me.”

“I… I was scared.”

“You were scared.”

“Are you just going to repeat everything I say?”

“It’s working so far.”

He held the flowers out to me. I took them.

“Can I come in?”

I was too shocked to say anything. Instead I stepped aside and allowed him into my house.

He closed the door and turned to look at me.

“I… I would’ve told you sooner. But I thought you hated me. I thought I blew it.”

“You kind of did.”

“Can you forgive me?”

“Did somebody put you up to this?”

He looked hurt. “What… no… how could you think that?”

“Two years ago I bared my soul to you, and you never spoke to me again. Now you show up on my doorstep? What am I supposed to think?”

“I… I have feelings for you, Jesse. I was a scared idiot back then. By the time I realized that I felt the same way about you… I thought it was too late. I thought you’d moved on.”

Several different urges were having a blood feud in my head at that moment. There was the urge to yell at him and kick him out of my house. There was the urge to press him up against the wall and kiss him until he couldn’t breath; he looks amazing in a tuxedo. And then there was the urge to fall on the ground crying like when I was five.

None of them had the upper hand, so I settled for standing there with my jaw hanging open.

“You should put those in some water.”

Water, right, that’s what you did when someone gave you flowers.

I made my way into the kitchen and found one of my mom’s vases.

I filled it with water, untied the bouquet and put it in. There was too much water and it splashed on to the counter. I grabbed some paper towels, about thirty, and wiped up the tiny spill.

The whole time Joey watched me, a sad smile on his face.

His hand was on mine then, stopping me from continuing to blot the already dry counter.

His hand was warm, gentle.

I looked up into his brown eyes, and couldn’t pull myself from them.

He leaned in, our lips brushed.

He pulled back and smiled at me.

“I’m sorry.” He said again.

“You’re sure this isn’t just some sick joke?”

He frowned and nodded.

I leaned in and pressed my lips against his.

I pulled back when I heard the kitchen door unlock.

My mother walked in and froze.

We were both blushing. I pulled my hand from beneath his, but she’d already seen.

“What’s all this then?” She arched an eyebrow as she spoke.

Joey looked at me; his eyes were filled with love.

I felt like I could do anything. I felt like I could fly.

My eyes never left his. “Mom. I’m gay.”

She nodded. “So I gathered.”

“Mrs. Jones. I’m in love with your son.” Joey’s eyes never left mine.

“That’s nice dear. Will you be staying for dinner?”

* * *

After that everything was as near to perfect as I could hope. My dad and his parents were as understanding as my mom had been.

We didn’t come out at school. I knew it wouldn’t go over well, and didn’t want to get beaten up. Even though Joey was convinced that it wouldn’t be that bad, he kept quiet for me.

Everything was perfect until that night the summer before our senior year.

Our parents were having a barbecue in our backyard. It was after sunset, and I was setting the table.

Joey wasn’t there yet, he was doing Community Theater over the summer, and he had rehearsals until late, but he’d promised he’d be there in time for dessert.

I think it was the smell of the ribs on the grill that attracted her.

I was biting into an ear of corn when I heard the growl.

My father and Mr. Johnson both turned to look into the darkness.

“What was that?” My mother looked worried.

Mr. Johnson turned back to the grill. “Probably a stray dog attracted by all this fine cooking.”

My father laughed and began moving the ribs onto a platter.

I saw a blur of gray and heard my father yell.

Our mother’s both screamed.

A huge gray dog, no… not a dog, a wolf was pushing my father to the ground, its teeth bloody.

Mr. Johnson attacked it with the tongs he was holding.

The beast barked as the hot metal singed its flesh and turned on him.

It launched itself at him. Its teeth sank into his throat.

We ran into the Johnson’s house. My mother forced the door shut behind us, but it did no good.

In one bound the beast pushed the wooden door down.

I cowered under the kitchen table, as it killed my mother.

I heard Mrs. Johnson scream, and then silence.

After what felt like an eternity I climbed out from under the table, and felt around in the silverware drawer. My hands closed on a butter knife, not the best weapon but I wasn’t thinking at the time.

I stepped into the hallway, and saw the thing crouching over Mrs. Johnson’s body, its bloody muzzle buried in her torso.

I screamed.

It reared up and looked at me.

It met my eyes, and a strange look came over it.

It looked from me to the corpse it had been devouring. The beast took a step back and looked at me again.

For a moment its form seemed to melt like putty. It stood up on its hind legs and reached out for me with a paw that looked too much like a hand, a look of horror filling its too-human eyes.

It looked from me to the corpse again, and again it seemed to melt.

When it looked at me again all human emotion was gone from its eyes. It pounced. I brought the butter knife up between us and closed my eyes.

There was a sizzling sound, and a howl of pain.

When I opened my eyes I was gone.

The butter knife slipped from my hand. I fell to the floor, sobbing.

That’s where Joey found me, crying near the ravaged body of his mother.

* * *

No one believed me. Not even my sister who flew back from college when she found out what had happened. They all attributed my account of what happened to shock.

No one believed me but Joey.

We checked the libraries and the internet, looking up everything we could about werewolves, most of which contradicted each other.

The only thing we knew for sure was that silver hurt them.

When we heard about the string of murders in Albuquerque we knew what we had to do.


	9. Chapter 9

Sharpay here again. Now where was I? Oh yes.

Jesse’s story took most of the evening to tell. We refreshed our drinks and moved outside when some hideous guitar player set up inside.

It was 1 in the morning by the time we left.

I turned my cell phone on to find no less than five voicemails from my brother waiting. I deleted them without listening and called him.

“Sharpay, where are you?”

“At Starbucks, we’re heading home now.”

“You didn’t do anything to him did you? We almost had to tie Joey up again. He’s pissed.”

“No, Ryan, I didn’t do anything to him. Here, ask him yourself.”

I handed Jesse the phone.

“Hello?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“No, I still have all my limbs.”

“Yes, that one too.” He blushed.

He handed the phone back to me.

“Hello?”

“Are you coming home now?”

“Yes, _mother_?”

I hung up the phone, leaving it on this time, and we climbed into my car.

* * *

Joey and Troy were waiting outside when we arrived.

Joey raced to embrace his boyfriend while managing to glare at me at the same time.

“What did she do to you?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.” Jesse smiled.

“Did she bite you?”

“Eww… as if?” I returned his glare.

Troy yawned. “Alright you two, it’s late and I’m tired. Time for lockdown.”

Joey rolled his eyes, but walked into the house, his boyfriend’s hand clenched in his own.

I made my way into the living room where I found Ryan and Gabriella sitting.

And here I’d been trying to forget that she’d ever been born.

I smiled and went into the kitchen. I found a box of left over Chinese in the refrigerator and through it in the microwave.

“Feeling better?”

I spun. I hadn’t heard Gabriella enter.

“Look, I’m sorry Sharpay.”

“No you’re not.”

She smiled. “Okay, maybe not that much. But whatever you might think, I didn’t do it to piss you off.”

I sighed, letting my anger out. “I know. And I’m not angry at you.”

“You’re angry about Zeke.”

“When did everyone become a psychotherapist?”

“I’ve been seeing one a lot, since… Bill…”

I frowned. I’d forgotten that Gabriella was the only person who could identify with what I was going through.

“Look. I don’t want to be rude. But if you want to help me, find your father.”

“What?”

“He knew what those things were; he might know how to track them down.”

She opened her mouth, about to say something, but then closed it and nodded.

* * *

I slept late the next morning, and woke to find that Ryan and Troy had already released the boys from their confinement.

I was surprised to find the two sitting at opposite ends of the living room, looking uncomfortable.

Troy was sitting in the middle of the room, watching golf on the TV.

“Where are Ryan and Gabriella?”

“Shopping.”

“You didn’t go with them?”

He looked at me. “And be enslaved to carry all their boxes? I don’t think so.”

I laughed and walked into the kitchen to fix myself some breakfast.

I turned to find Jesse looking at me.

“Hungry?”

He nodded.

I fixed breakfast for both of us, Troy and Joey could fend for themselves well enough.

I took a seat at the table. Jesse joined me.

“So what’s up with you and Joey?”

“What do you mean?”

“Usually you’re joined at the hip.”

“We had a fight.”

“Over what?”

He set down his fork. “You.”

“Me?”

“All of you.”

“Oh. He still doesn’t believe us.”

Jesse nodded and resumed eating.

We finished the meal in silence. To my horror I ate three times as much as he did. I hoped my metabolism was changing; otherwise it would go straight to my thighs.

I looked at Jesse again. “Is there anything we can do to convince him?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so. Not yet. He’s as stubborn as a mule.”

“Of course he is; he’s a boy.”

“Hey!”

“No offense.”

He laughed.

We returned to the living room, but the boys were still watching golf.

I disguised my interest. “Ugh, how can you two watch this? It’s like watching paint dry.”

Troy looked at me for a moment, and then returned his attention to the TV.

I rolled my eyes. “Jesse, get your things, we’re going shopping.”

Joey glared at me, but Jesse went upstairs and met me at my car.

I checked myself in the rear view mirror and then regarded Joey. “You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to cause problems in your relationship. So if you really don’t want to, you can go back in there.”

He shook his head. “No. Joey has to get over this on his own.”

I started the car and we were off.

“So, where are we going?” Jesse asked after several minutes.

“I don’t know. Where do you want to go?”

“Wherever.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“I thought we were just going shopping.”

“The mall it is then.”

“Won’t your brother and nemesis be there?”

I laughed. “Wow, ‘nemesis,’ now I know why your friends all call you, IQ.”

He groaned. “I’m never going to escape that nickname, am I?”

“Not when you’re the one that brings it up, IQ.”

He punched my arm.

“Careful, you don’t want to get me mad unless you want to wind up a were-cat-thing.”

He laughed.

“But, you’re right. Movies it is then.”

I drove to the nearest theater, and we found a light comedy to watch.

After the movie we went to a small café in the same shopping center as the theater. I forced him to order another blueberry muffin.

“You’re trying to make me fat.”

I shook my head. “Please, you’re skin and bones.”

He laughed. “Rent is expensive, and werewolf hunters don’t get paid much.”

“It’s a good thing the werewolves you were hunting are such giving individuals then. Now eat.”

He attempted to protest again.

I held up my hand to stop him. “Not one more word until you eat that whole thing.”

He rolled his eyes, but obeyed.

I sipped my latte and picked at my brownie.

He popped the last bite into his mouth, and looked at me. “So how are you doing?”

I laughed.

“No, really.”

“You mean besides the facts that I was beaten our for the school musical by little miss perfect, again; my boyfriend was abducted by man eating dog-things; oh, and almost everybody I know is a werewolf? I’m great, thanks for asking.”

“I meant including all that.”

I dropped the morsel of brownie I’d been about to eat. “Oh. Well then, I’m a thin veneer of civility and habit covering a seething ball of rage and hatred.”

He nodded.

“Does it get better?”

He shook his head. “It gets… different. You stop thinking about it so much, but it’s always there.”

“Does knowing that she’s dead help?”

He shrugged. “A little, maybe. I’m glad no one else will have to go through what we did, but… they’re still gone.”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I wanted revenge. I wanted to hurt the things that took Zeke from me. I didn’t just want to kill them; I wanted them to feel the pain I felt. The pain I felt everyday. The pain I thought I’d feel forever.

“Sharpay!”

I blinked, realizing that Jesse had been trying to get my attention and I’d been out of it.

“What?”

“We should get going. I don’t want Joey to worry again.”

I nodded and finished my latte, my brownie forgotten.

* * *

When we returned home I found the whole gang, or should I say pack, was already there.

They were all lounging about the living room watching a movie. Joey and Kelsi were snuggling. Ryan was seated on Troy’s lap, decked from head to toe in new clothes. Gabriella was sitting alone on a couch, focusing on the screen.

Joey was situated in the corner farthest from them, his eyes darted to us as we came in. “I thought you were going shopping.”

I shrugged. “We went to a movie instead.”

He glared at me.

Jesse took the open seat next to his boyfriend, and I took the only remaining seat in the room, which was located next to Gabriella.

“So is this going to be a regular thing?”

Kelsi glanced from the screen to me. “What do you mean?”

“All of you, hanging out over here, all the time?”

“You have a bigger TV then Troy’s parents.” Jason mumbled past… something in his mouth.

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

After the movie Ryan turned off the DVD player and tuned to the local news.

“Why are we watching this?” I asked.

“Because there might be a story that’ll give us a clue about those… things.” Ryan said.

I hadn’t thought of that. I was surprised Ryan had.

There was a story on the news of interest to us all; it wouldn’t give us any help in finding them though. The police had announced that Zeke was missing, and they were offering a reward for any information.

“Joey, stay away from the phone.” Troy said.

I glanced over to see Joey cast a vicious look at Troy.

Jesse caught my eyes and rolled his own. I held in a laugh.

* * *

Our parents returned later the next week, which made it difficult to lock the boys, well Joey, in at night. Based on the story I’d made up, Mother felt the need to smother them. She and Daddy both made a grand show of how accepting they were, and insisted that the boys eat dinner with the whole family every night. She even insisted that Ryan and Troy join us, as she wouldn’t let any family member miss the evening meal.

I don’t know if she was ignorant of how uncomfortable she made Jesse and Joey, or just considered her right as a mother.

If she smothered them, then she was attempting to drown me with love. Everyone new now that Zeke was missing. I tried to maintain my brave act, I tried to focus on finding the things responsible, but each day that goal seemed to slip further away, and each day my defenses lowered a bit more.

I cried myself to sleep most nights. Everyone wanted to know how I was, but I couldn’t tell them. If I told them the truth then I might be tempted to explain why, and no one who wasn’t there could know what happened that night, it would’ve been bad; bad for me, worse for my brother.

Besides, how would I tell someone that Zeke was the best thing that ever happened to me, and I’d shot him just before he was carried away by cannibalistic beasts?

As each day passed the new moon grew closer and the well of anger and hopelessness within me grew deeper. Ryan told me not to worry, said I wouldn’t change for at least another month, but I still worried.

With my parents return Kelsi, Jason, and Gabriella stopped hanging around so much. From what I gathered from Ryan and Troy, they’d told Kelsi and Jason’s parents about the attack, leaving out the details of Jesse and Joey’s involvement, and now the adults were scouring the city for signs of either the things that had attacked us or Gabriella’s father, who it seemed had vanished like the ghost he was supposed to be.

The new moon came and went. Despite his prior assurances, Ryan and Troy spent those three nights with me, insisting that I stay in my room. He’d been right though, nothing happened, except that I swear my leg hair grew a quarter of an inch each of the three nights.

Ryan laughed and said I’d, “Get the hang of it eventually.”

Rehearsals for Kelsi’s musical were in full swing, and I was beginning to feel comfortable in my subordinate position, focusing instead on how to find the things that had taken Zeke. As it turns out I’m not cut out for strategizing. I told Ryan everything I thought of, and he told me that they’d already tried it.

I didn’t have much chance of succeeding where an extended pack of werewolves was failing, but I kept trying.

Living a life dedicated to revenge while trying to keep up with school work wasn’t an easy task. I began to identify with Jesse, and even Joey more as the days went by.

As for the two of them, Joey still made certain to glare at any nonhuman when he thought he wasn’t being watched. Jesse was more talkative in the car since our night of bonding, and from what I heard he was doing well on the Scholastic Decathlon team, Taylor and Gabriella were even hoping to take State this year and make it to the nationals.

With the new moon gone, I chose the next logical date to obsess over; Valentine’s Day was less than a week away.

The days leading up to it were made all the worse by being surrounded by happy couples. To my horror the only person I could turn to, the only person who didn’t remind me of the impending day, was Gabriella, my nemesis as Jesse had dubbed her.

At last the hideous day arrived. Ryan made me promise to arrive to school a bit later than normal, so I drove Jesse to school the long way. We walked first to his locker.

There was a single red rose taped to it.

He pulled it from the locker and smelled it, his cheeks changing color to match the flower.

I nudged him. “Someone has an admirer.”

His cheeks went a deeper red, which I hadn’t thought possible.

On the way to my locker I noticed a single red rose affixed to Troy’s locker. When we reached my locker I found Troy handing a wildflower bouquet to my brother. The followed it with a short kiss before heading to their respective homerooms.

My mind went back to the first day of school. When Troy and Zeke surprised Ryan and I with roses. Tears welled up in my eyes and attempted to fall, but I held them back. This day was going to be brutal.


	10. Chapter 10

I survived the day, and after school found myself walking alone down the hall. Rehearsals had been cancelled, it seemed that against all odds Mr. Jewls was still alive and Mrs. Jewls had what she described as a, “hot date,” a description that would give the whole class nightmares for weeks no doubt.

Ryan and Troy had agreed to chaperone Jesse and Joey on a date outside of the house, the first time they’d been allowed together in public since the night Zeke died.

Wandering alone I found no need to keep the tears in, and they trickled down my cheeks.

Without even thinking my legs took me to the auditorium.

Rehearsals may have been canceled, but when I found myself there I decided that a little more work on my tiny part couldn’t hurt.

I wandered down the aisle to the stage, and hoisting myself up, sat there.

I heard a backstage door opened, and worried for a moment at being caught with my makeup ruined, but I decided that at that moment I didn’t care.

“Hey, Sharpay.” Gabriella’s voice came from the darkness behind me.

I sighed. Of course, the only other girl without a date.

“What are you doing here?” I thought I could guess the answer, but asked anyway.

“This is where they caught her.”

I blinked. I’d been wrong. I turned to look at her and take in the stage. Of course, I’d forgotten the true horrors this stage had seen.

I tried to envision the fight Ryan had described to me, but couldn’t.

I met Gabriella’s eyes, and nodded.

She sat down next to me. “It doesn’t help you know.”

“What?”

“Knowing that the person who did it is dead.”

I looked away from her, staring into the empty auditorium. “It’s all I have left.”

“It’s not.”

“What else do I have? All I had was Zeke and drama.”

She sighed. “It’s one play, Sharpay. You still have drama.”

“Do I? Last I checked Broadway didn’t have a lot of roles for Nagual.”

“It’s not that bad. You’ll get used to it.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Well, there’s always _Cats_.”

I snorted.

“You’ve got your whole life ahead of you, Sharpay, and it’s going to be a long one.”

I looked at her again. “What do you mean?”

She looked away. “They didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“Well, uh… Troy’s grandparents are over one hundred and fifty.”

“What?”

She looked at me and nodded.

“So I’m not going to die?”

“Not until someone kills you.”

“Well aren’t you a ray of sunshine.”

“Hey, I’m in the same boat as you.”

I sighed, she was right.

I studied my expensive shoes. “Why are you so strong?”

“Me? You’re kidding?”

“Bill didn’t die that long ago, and yet here you are giving me advice.”

She laughed. “Did you see me after he died? I was a wreck, I still am. You’re the strong one.”

“Only because I bottle it all up.”

Gabriella sighed again. “So what are your plans for tonight?”

“I was considering going to bed early and not waking up until auditions for the spring musical.”

“Do you… maybe… want to come over to my place? For like a girls night?”

It didn’t sound so bad. I nodded. “Okay, but first we need to stop off at the grocery store.”

I found myself walking out of the auditorium with the girl who’d stolen my part.

* * *

She didn’t have her own car, so I drove. If talking to Gabriella was strange, having her in my car was surreal.

We stopped off at a Seven Eleven and purchased all the remaining flavors of chocolate ice cream; which, it being late on Valentine’s Day, wasn’t much.

She directed me to her house and we went in.

Her mother seemed nice enough, and she left us in peace to watch TV in her bedroom.

Gabriella decided that in honor of the day we’d watch nothing with even a hint of a romantic plot, a decision to which I didn’t object.

Neither of us spoke during _The Neverending Story_ , but I don’t think I ever cried so much at the stupid scene where the horse dies, not even when I was five.

After the movie Gabriella began searching her DVD collection, finding movies with no hint of romance wasn’t an easy thing to do. Even most horror movies feel the need to include romance.

“What’s it like?” I asked.

“What’s what like?”

“Changing?”

Gabriella looked at me and frowned. “It’s hard to describe.”

“Try.”

“Well, it’s scary at first. You think it should hurt, but it doesn’t. And then… there’s this… other you there… it’s feral and wild… a thing of pure instinct…”

“A killer?”

She shook her head. “No, just an animal. A hungry animal, but it’s not like the movies. You aren’t going to hunt down the people closest to you or anything like that.”

“Well, that’s something.”

“Yeah. But it means Darbus knew what she was doing.”

I sighed. “I still can’t really rap my head around that. I mean, she was always harsh, but a killer?”

Gabriella shrugged.

She returned to the DVDs and selected one at last, The Boondock Saints.

I’d never heard of it, it was some movie about two cute guys going on a killing spree and taking out a bunch of mobsters. It was bit violent for my taste, but at least there was never a hint of romance.

Gabriella was again searching her DVDs when there was a knock at the door.

My nemesis paused and looked towards the door. “Who could that be?”

I shrugged. “I’ll get it. You keep looking.”

She shrugged and resumed her search.

I stood and walked into the entry way. I looked through the peep hole and froze.

“Gabriella, I think you should get it.”

I heard the sound of cases being shuffled stop and she appeared.

“Who is it?”

I pointed to the peep hole.

She looked through it and gasped.

She reached for the lock and opened the door, to reveal her father standing on the other side.

“Evening, pup.” The man in the black leather jacket said.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just thought I’d drop by.”

“Well look what the _cat_ dragged in. If you’re looking for sex you came to the wrong house.” The voice came from behind us.

Gabriella and I turned to see her mother standing at the top of the stairs.

“Ah, Socorro, I see you’re as feisty as ever.”

“Get out, pig.”

He smiled like the Cheshire cat. “Pig?”

“I believe I told you to get out.”

“I’m not here for you.”

“Then why are you here?” Gabriella asked.

“I was looking for you, and her.” He pointed at me with his thumb.

Gabriella’s mother descended the stairs, her eyes fixed on her ex-husband. “Don’t you think she’s a little young for you, Meli?”

“So were you.”

Mrs. Montez rolled her eyes. “I’m not letting you suck these girls into your sick little world.”

He smiled. “It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?”

Gabriella’s mother blanched. “What do you mean?”

“Wouldn’t you rather have this conversation inside, where your neighbors can’t hear it?”

“Fine, but don’t get comfortable.”

He stepped in, and I pushed the door shut behind him.

“So, talk.”

“I don’t even get to sit down?”

“No.”

He shrugged, his smile never failing. “She’s been bitten.”

Mrs. Montez’s eyes went wide. She turned to look at Gabriella.

“Is that true?”

To my surprise Gabriella looked angry. “Wait. You know what he is?”

Her mother’s eyes softened. “Yes.”

“And you never told me.”

“What was I supposed to tell you? That your father was a no good cheating were-jaguar?”

“Well… when you put it that way.” Gabriella bit her lip.

“Did he attack you?” Her mother focused on Gabriella while pointing at her ex-husband.

“No, mother.”

Socorro Montez spun to face Gabriella’s father. “Who bit her?”

He shrugged. “Beats me. I don’t keep tabs on the local wolf population.”

Mrs. Montez nodded. “I should have known.”

“Yes, you should have.” Gabriella’s father said.

Mrs. Montez roller her eyes and pointed at me. “And her?”

For the first time his smile faltered. “Jose.”

Gabriella’s mom picked up on the change in his expression, her eyes softened. “What happened?”

“He’s dead now, or worse.”

“I guess you had better sit down then. You’re telling me what the Hell is going on.”

He nodded and followed her into the living room.

Gabriella glanced at me, and we followed.

“What’s going on, Meli?”

He sighed. “The construction at her country club,” he pointed at me, “broke one of the seals.”

Gabriella’s mother gasped.

He nodded. “They’re loose now. We came up here to see if we could round them up, but it was already too late.”

“What happened to Jose?”

“I’ll get to that. When we got here they lured us into a trap, we managed to get away, and we found these two and her pack mates at the pool. We didn’t have much choice; they were surrounding us, and them.”

“Her pack mates helped us fight them off. And she,” he pointed at me again, “got bitten in the fray. Jose kept them from dragging her off.”

Mrs. Montez looked at me, and nodded.

“After that we tried to hunt them down, but they’d already spread too far. The must have half a dozen warrens set up in the area already.”

“So fast?”

“Maybe, maybe not. It took longer than I would have liked to find out about the construction, I don’t know how long they’ve been active now.”

“They must have been desperate to attack two Nagual and an entire pack of Oborotni.”

Gabriella gave a small gasp. “You know about us?”

Mrs. Montez looked at her daughter, and nodded. “Some.”

“That’s why I’m here. I need to find her elders.” Mr. Montez looked at his daughter as he spoke.

“You think that’s a good idea?”

He laughed. “No. But dire situations call for dire measures.”

Gabriella met her father’s gaze. “How old are you?”

“Old enough to remember when your kind drove our kind,” he gestured at me as he spoke, “from our lands.”

“Why did you leave?” Anger was again flooding into Gabriella’s eyes.

He sighed. “That’s… complicated, and this isn’t the time to get into that.”

She continued to glare at her father.

“You need to take me to your elders. They’re digging up graves right now, but it won’t be long before they start seeking live prey again.”

“Fine. Let’s go.” She looked at me.

I read her meaning and stood, grabbing my purse as I did.

Mrs. Montez regarded her daughter. “Don’t be out too late; we need to have a talk when you get back.”

Gabriella nodded, and we walked toward the door, her father following.

When we reached my car she pointed to the back seat.

“You’re kidding?”

She glared at her father.

“You’re not kidding. You are definitely your mother’s daughter.”

He moved his too massive bulk into the tiny space as Gabriella and I got in.

I started the engine and looked at Gabriella. “So Troy’s or Jason’s?”

“Troy’s, they already know about you, and I don’t think I want him killed tonight. At least I don’t think I do.”

I laughed and drove to Troy’s house.

The house was dark when we arrived.

“It doesn’t look like they’re home.”

She shrugged. “It is Valentine’s Day.”

I shuddered. “Ugh… what if they are home? They’re probably…”

She made a face. “Eww.”

Her father laughed. “It’s perfectly natural.”

She glared at him and he fell silent.

Gabriella got out of the car and we followed.

She knocked, but there was no answer.

She rang the bell, and we waited. Still no answer.

She rang again.

At last we saw a light come on inside, and the door swung open to reveal Mr. Bolton in a bathrobe.

“Miss Montez, what are you doing here?”

She stared at him for a moment, and then looked away blushing. “I’m sorry to interrupt you, but my father here wanted to meet you.”

Mr. Bolton stiffened, looking from her to the man standing behind me in the shadows. “Your father?”

Gabriella’s father stepped into the porch light’s glow and looked Troy’s father over.

Mr. Bolton turned around. “Lucille, you’d better get down here.”

She came down the stairs, also dressed in only a robe.

I watched Meli’s eyes look her over.

I elbowed him in the side. “Pig.”

He laughed.

“What is it Jack?” She came to the door and took in the people assembled on her doorstep.

“This is Gabriella’s father.”

She took a step back. “Oh.”

Troy’s father held out his hand. “Jack Bolton.”

Gabriella’s father stared at the hand, his smile evaporating. “Meli.”

After an uncomfortable moment Troy’s father pulled his hand back.

Mrs. Bolton stepped forward again. “Won’t you come in?”

Gabriella’s father stepped into the house; she made no move to follow.

“Aren’t you girls coming in?”

“No thanks, we should get going.” I said.

Mr. Bolton nodded.

We returned to my car and left.


	11. Chapter 11

“Ready to go home?”

She shook her head. “Not really, can we go to your place?”

“Not unless you want to listen to your ex-boyfriend scream my brother’s name.”

She shuddered. “I’ll pass.”

“Think there’s any movies still starting?” I asked.

“This late, on a Thursday?”

I shrugged, she was right.

“I hate this day.”

She nodded in agreement.

We wound up at a Denny’s, eating pancakes smothered in chocolate sauce.

“This is going straight to my hips.”

Gabriella laughed. “Good luck with that. I have to eat like a bear just to keep from losing weight now.”

I smiled. “Really? So you’re saying there is an upside to this whole thing?”

She giggled and shoved another bite into her mouth.

Her phone rang. She glanced at it and answered.

“Hello?”

“Yes, Mom. Yes, I’ll come home now.” She rolled her eyes.

I took one last bite and called the waiter over.

“Yes, Miss Evans?”

There was something about the way he called me ‘Miss Evans’ that caused me to look at him for the first time that evening. “Don’t you work at my parent’s golf club?”

He nodded. “Only over the summer.”

“Charles, right?”

“Yes, Miss Evans.”

“Call me Sharpay, and we’re ready for the check.”

He nodded and wandered off towards the register.

Gabriella continued to mumble into her phone, and pulled out her wallet.

I shook my head and handed Daddy’s credit card to the waiter when he returned.

She gave me a strange look, but was soon distracted by her mother.

After paying, and leaving a good tip, the waiter was kind of cute and I felt bad for him having to work on Valentine’s Day, I attempted to drive to her house, but had no idea where I was going. She had to guide me again.

I left her standing on the curb eyeing her own door and drove home.

The house was dark when I returned. For a moment I wondered if the boys were home yet. I even worried that maybe Joey had tried something.

As I climbed the stairs my fears were placated.

“Ryan!”

Troy’s not-so-muffled scream echoed from behind my brother’s door. I rolled my eyes and went into my room.

Another scream echoed through my door. I turned on my stereo, the volume was already set to the right level to block out their sounds.

* * *

Friday morning Jesse was more relaxed then I’d seen him… well ever.

“Good night?” I asked as we drove to school.

He smiled.

I considered pressing for details, but under the circumstances I didn’t feel up to hearing them.

“What’d you do?”

I shrugged. “Hung out with Gabriella, ate everything chocolate I could find.”

He laughed. “Did you leave anything for her?”

“Not on purpose.”

He laughed again. “I think Joey might be coming around.”

I fiddled with the radio. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

When we arrived in homeroom, I had to admit that Joey looked much more relaxed then he had since his captivity began.

Still, I’d seen him in rehearsals, unlike his boyfriend, Joey was a good actor. I didn’t point out to Jesse that his boyfriend might be lying to him, but to myself at least I had to admit that there was nothing Joey wouldn’t do to protect Jesse, and that included lying to him.

I didn’t pay attention to a word Mrs. Jewls said during homeroom, instead I thought back to how things had been a few months before. I missed those days when the biggest problem I had was accessorizing. Now every day was a potential life and death situation, not just for me, but for almost everyone I knew.

I saw Chad and Taylor in the hall after homeroom, and I envied them. The biggest worry on their minds was whether or not they’d go to the same college.

They caught me looking at them, and walked over. Great, my wonderful plan of avoiding them was blown by one wistful look.

“Hey Sharpay.” Taylor said.

“Any word on Zeke?” Chad asked.

I blanched, and shook my head. “Nothing.”

Taylor placed a hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry. If you ever need someone to talk to.”

I looked at her, tears welling up in my eyes.

I battled them back, it was sincere gesture on her part, but it wasn’t like I could tell them the truth. “Thanks, but I’m fine.”

I turned and walked down the hall.

“Ice princess.” I heard Chad mutter as I walked away.

“Ow. What?” Echoed down the hallway after me.

I smiled.

I spent my first period thinking about what Chad had said though. I wished I could still be the infamous ice princess, but it wasn’t that easy. It used to be, before I’d met Zeke, before I fell in love with him, before I lost him.

It’s easy to ignore the world and deny all emotion before you’ve felt any. That’s how I used to be. The most I knew of love back then was what I’d done in drama, which was hollow compared to the real thing.

The ice princess was as dead as Zeke.

If I wasn’t the queen bitch of the school anymore, then what was I? Who was I? I didn’t even know anymore.

During free period I wandered the halls. To my surprise my legs didn’t lead me to the auditorium.

Nothing seemed to matter anymore.

I climbed the stairs to the roof, and sat down on the small bench in the science club’s garden.

Everything I’d cared about before Zeke no longer seemed to matter to me.

And with Zeke gone… nothing mattered.

Rage and fear had kept me going since the horrible night of the championship.

But after the last night, I didn’t think I’d ever get revenge against the things that had taken Zeke from me. If Gabriella’s father couldn’t take them on, what hope did I have? I wouldn’t even know how to start.

Gabriella’s words in the auditorium came back to me. “It doesn’t help you know.”

I knew she was right. It wouldn’t matter if I hunted down and killed every last one of those things. It wouldn’t bring Zeke back, it wouldn’t give my life anymore meaning then it had already.

Just like that the rage that had sustained me for a month vanished, leaving me with only fear.

What if the things did attack again? What if she and her friends had to help hunt them down? What if someone else died?

It was too much. I broke down and cried.

In the distance I heard the bell ring, but I didn’t care. I stayed in the quiet garden and cried. I ignored the next bell, and the next.

I didn’t see them arrive, but I felt an arm close around my shoulders.

I blinked the tears from my eyes and looked up to see Troy standing there, concern in his eyes.

I turned my head to see that it was my brother who held me.

I flung myself into his embrace and cried onto his shoulder, my makeup ruining his green and white polo shirt, but he didn’t say a word.

I held onto my brother. He was the only real thing left in my world. I felt bad for forgetting about him earlier. He might not be Zeke, but there was still one person in this world who loved me, one person for me to hold onto, one person who I wouldn’t ever be able to stand losing.

Troy squeezed onto the bench behind me and patted my back. I almost laughed, but it came out as another sob, why were all the good ones gay?

They sat with me in the garden through lunch, and into the next period, neither saying a word.

I ran out of tears, but still I cried. I had a headache from crying so long.

Another bell rang; I had no idea which one it was.

“You should go home.” Troy said.

I pulled back from my brother, and he nodded.

I saw the damage I’d done to my brother’s shirt. “Oh Ry, your shirt!”

He smiled. “Don’t worry about it. Let us take you home. I’ll comeback after and Troy and I can handle the boys tonight.”

I nodded, he was right. I’d cried myself sick, and there was no way I’d be able to focus in class, or even drive myself home. I felt so helpless. I’d never felt helpless before, I didn’t like it.

Ryan drove my car, and Troy followed in his truck to take him back to school.

I gave them a half smile before entering the house.

Mother wanted to know why I was home early, but one look at my face and she allowed me to go upstairs without further questions.

I went to my bathroom and took a pair of Excedrin, then collapsed on my bed.

I hadn’t realized until that moment how exhausted I was. I fell into a dream free sleep.

* * *

I awoke to find Ryan stroking my face.

“Hey, are you hungry?”

I nodded.

“Do you feel up to coming downstairs, or do you want me to bring it up? Mom and Dad went out to dinner, so it’s only Troy, Joey, and Jesse down there.”

I shrugged. “I think I’d rather be alone right now.”

He nodded and left.

I went into my bathroom and washed my face, I looked like a wreck, which was appropriate.

I heard a knock at my bedroom door.

“Come in.” I called out as I reapplied some makeup.

When I returned my room there was no one there, but someone had left a pair of hamburgers and a glass of iced tea on my nightstand.

I turned on my TV, more for background noise then to watch anything, and picked up the first burger.

It was overcooked, and cold, but I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, so I didn’t care.

I devoured both burgers, and watched some sitcoms while sipping my tea.

Another knock came from my door.

“Come in.”

To my surprise it was Jesse, not Ryan, who entered my room.

He closed the door and looked at me. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“Bad day?”

I laughed, a little. “More like a bad life.”

“Do you want to talk about anything?”

I muted the TV, and was silent for a while.

He sat down on the corner of my bed, watching me.

“I don’t know.”

“Uh… how do you not know?”

I gave him a weak smile. “I don’t know that either.”

“How do you feel?”

I tried to put it into words. “Alone. Empty. Confused.”

“You’re not alone you know. Ryan really cares about you, he’s worried.”

I nodded. “I know he does, and I know he is, but that’s still how I feel.”

He glanced at the silent TV.

“I feel… I feel like until I started dating Zeke my entire life was an act. Being with him was the first real thing in my life, and now… it’s gone.”

He returned his attention to me, and nodded. “You’ll get through this.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. I know I can, but I don’t know if I should.”

He seemed surprised. “Why not?”

“Why should I? What else is there for me?”

He sighed. “Life. Zeke wouldn’t want you to miss out on that.”

I nodded. In my mind I knew he was right, but my heart still felt empty.

He stood up. “If you want to talk about anything, you know where to find me.”

He left the room, and I un-muted the TV.

* * *

I woke up early the next day, well early for a Saturday.

I did some stretches and a little bit of yoga before getting in the shower.

I was surprised to find Ryan and Troy already up and about when I went downstairs and into the kitchen.

“Hey Sis, you’re up early.”

“I could say the same about you.”

He shrugged.

“So my parents tell me you found Gabi’s dad.” Troy looked up from pouring a glass of orange juice.

“More like he found us.”

Troy sat down. “They won’t tell me anything else though. Do you know what’s going on?”

I shrugged. “Not much. He’s been trying to hunt those things down. His friend, Jose, the one that bit me, was killed.”

Ryan paled. “Really?”

I nodded. “That’s what he said.”

“Did he say what they are? Where they came from?” Troy asked.

“He mentioned something about the construction at Lava Springs breaking a seal or something.”

Ryan sighed. “So it’s our fault.”

Troy took Ryan’s hand. “No it’s not. It’s not as though your father knew what was down there.”

Ryan shrugged and looked at me.

Troy continued to look at his boyfriend as he spoke. “So how’d Gabi take it?”

“Better than her mother.”

“Her mother saw him?”

“Well he did show up at her house. She knows, by the way, at least about Gabriella and me.”

Ryan gasped. “You told her?”

I glared at her. “Don’t be ridiculous, Ryan, contrary to popular opinion I’m not an idiot. Gabriella’s father told her.”

“Why would he tell her?”

“Well, she already knew what he was. And she knew about werewolves too, even knew that Russian word you like to call yourselves.” I thought back to the night. “You know, now that I think about it, he told her about the broken seal, and she seemed to understand what that meant. Maybe you should talk to her if you’re so curious.”

“You aren’t?” Troy asked.

“What’s the point, Troy? All we could do if we knew is get ourselves killed like Jose and…” I couldn’t finish the sentence. I turned to the freezer and pulled out some waffles instead.

“She’s right you know.” Ryan said.

“But we have to do something. We can’t just sit here.”

I put two waffles into the toaster and pushed the lever down. “Oh yes you can.”

“Sharpay.”

“I already lost Zeke, Troy. I’m not losing my brother too.”

He sighed.

“And before you get any stupid ideas, just think what losing you would do to Ryan. I’m not living with that either.”

He made a non-committal grunt.

The waffles popped up, and I put them onto a plate.

I turned and sat down at the table facing the boys.

I grabbed the syrup from in front of Ryan and smothered the waffles before cutting into them with a fork.

I glanced up from my meal to see the two staring into each other’s eyes, love and concern at war on their faces. I was thankful that my advice seemed to have hit home.

Ryan was the only real thing in my life, and I wasn’t about to risk him, or risk him being hurt; despite the pain that their happiness still brought me.


	12. Chapter 12

After breakfast I went upstairs and unlocked Jesse and Joey’s cage.

I gave a light knock, not even sure if they were up yet, and went downstairs to watch TV.

I realized that I’d been watching a lot of TV, and tried to think of something to do. I eyed the pool through the back windows, but it was far too cold for that. I hate winters.

I thought about practicing for the show, but I already had my part mastered, and I knew Gabriella’s well enough for the slim chance she couldn’t make a show.

There weren’t any movies out I was interested in seeing, and for the first time in my life shopping didn’t sound appealing.

I sighed and changed channels.

Troy and Ryan emerged from the kitchen, and sat down on the couch to my right.

“So…” I let my question hang there.

Ryan glanced at me. “So… what?”

I favored him with a glare. “I’m bored. All we do is sit here and watch this stupid TV.”

“Well what would you suggest?” He returned my glare.

“I have no idea. That’s why I’m asking you.”

“Well I’m not the bored one.”

I turned my attention from my brother to the boy sitting next to him. “Troy, think of something?”

“What? Why me?”

“Because you’re the cutest boy in the house.”

“Hey!” Ryan gave me a dirty look.

“Are you saying he isn’t?”

“Um… well…” Ryan looked at his boyfriend.

Troy took his hand. “Don’t let her get to you, Ry. You know you’re better looking then I am.”

Ryan smiled then, and placed a quick kiss on Troy’s lips and turned his attention back to the TV.

I gave a dramatic sigh and allowed myself to focus on the TV.

* * *

Gabriella’s father was staying with the Boltons, so Troy spent every night at our house that week, stopping by his house in the afternoons only to grab new clothes.

The first night of the full moon was that Wednesday, for some reason the adults of their little pack couldn’t look after Gabriella, so it was decided, not by me, that she’d spend those nights at our house.

Daddy was away on business, and Mother had gone off to some new health retreat, so at least they wouldn’t pose a problem.

“I just don’t see why your parents can’t keep her again.” I said to Troy as we walked through the doors of my house after school. Ryan was at Troy’s house getting instructions from Troy’s mom on how to help Gabriella. The day before he’d been beaming that Troy’s parents trusted him enough to watch over her.

He sighed. “I think they’re helping Gabi’s father. When I took out the trash yesterday I found a whole bag of ripped and clawed up clothes.”

I tried to find further reason to protest Gabriella spending three days in my house, but couldn’t find a valid one.

Jesse and Joey followed us through the door.

“So wait? You expect us to spend the night trapped in a house with an uncontrolled werewolf?” Joey sounded worried.

Troy rolled his eyes. “It’s not like that and you know it.”

“I’ll be the judge of what I know.”

“If she doesn’t get it under control, it’ll only be a problem if you’re allergic to wolves, or wearing white.”

“White?” Jesse asked.

Troy shrugged. “She sheds.”

I stifled a laugh.

Gabriella arrived soon after, with a small suitcase. I wondered what was in it. I couldn’t comprehend how anyone could fit three days of clothes and accessories within such a tiny space.

To my horror the five of us could find nothing better to do then watch TV, again. If anything, my life had become more boring since becoming a Nagual.

Ryan arrived before sunset, and went upstairs to a room with Gabriella.

As the sunset I saw a shiver shoot through Troy’s body. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He looked like Ryan as he did it.

Jesse and Joey noticed too, and stared at him, fear in their eyes, until he opened his eyes.

When it became apparent he wasn’t about to transform in the middle of the living room, their eyes returned to the TV.

The four of us watched a game show.

An hour later Ryan came down the stairs.

Troy looked at him, and Ryan shook his head.

Ryan crossed the room to his boyfriend and sat down.

“No luck?” Troy asked.

“She lasted longer. She thinks too much.” Ryan said.

I saw a flash of dark fur at the top of the stairs and stifled another laugh as Gabriella descended the stairs on all fours.

Joey and Jesse caught me looking and followed my gaze.

Jesse yelped in fright. Joey leapt to his feet, positioning himself between Gabi and his boyfriend, his arms raised like some 19th Century boxer.

I knew it wasn’t funny. I knew that two weeks would bring the new moon and with it my turn to be in her place. But I couldn’t contain my laughter anymore.

Gabriella padded into the room, a huge black she-wolf. She cast me a glare accompanied by a growl, and then plopped down on the floor watching the TV.

Realizing that he wasn’t about to be attacked Joey lowered his hands.

Jesse stood and took a step towards the wolf. Joey placed a restraining hand on his arm.

“Gabriella?” Jesse asked.

She turned to look at him, and nodded once.

“It’s really still you?”

She nodded again.

Jesse shook off Joey’s hand and stepped forward again, to place a hand on the top of her head.

She looked at him and arched… well not an eyebrow exactly, wolves don’t have those. She arched an eye ridge? Whatever.

“She’s not a dog Jesse; you don’t need to pet her.” I was surprised to find that the words had come from my own mouth.

She gave me what I took to be an appreciative look.

He snatched his hand back. “Sorry.”

She nodded at him and went back to watching the TV.

“I thought wolves were color blind?” I looked from Gabriella to Ryan as I spoke.

He shrugged. “Maybe, but we aren’t.”

After a movie Gabriella and I went upstairs.

I paused at my door. “I’m sorry, about laughing earlier.”

She nodded at me.

“If it makes you feel any better, you’ll get your revenge in two weeks.”

She winked at me and padded down the hall to the guest room.

* * *

The next night was a repeat, except that Joey and Jesse didn’t freak out quite as much when Gabriella, unsuccessful yet again, came down the stairs.

Friday night she finally managed it. After almost two hours Ryan and a very human Gabriella came down the stairs. She looked exhausted.

She took the seat next to me. I gave her a half smile as she did.

“See Gabi, it isn’t that hard.” Troy said.

She shot him a glare. “Shove it, _Teen Wolf_.”

He laughed and flashed his winning smile.

Ryan cuffed the back of his head.

“Ow. What?”

Jesse and Joey laughed.

Ryan rolled his eyes.

“Are we going to spend all night watching TV, again?” I asked.

Ryan looked at me. “And what would you suggest, Sis?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. But it’s Friday night. There’s got to be something six kids can get up to.”

“We could go to a movie.” Troy said.

I shook my head. “That’s just substituting a big screen for a little one.”

“We could go to a club.”

I found myself nodding before I realized it was Gabriella who’d said it.

“Do either of you know any clubs?” Troy raised an eyebrow as he looked at us.

Gabriella shrugged. “No. But it’s what the kids on TV would do.”

I laughed. “How pathetic are we? We can’t even come up with an idea of what to do without resorting to television.”

Gabriella laughed too. Ryan and Troy rolled their eyes.

I glanced at Jesse and Joey, they looked uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong you two? Don’t you want to go out?”

Joey nodded. Jesse shook his head.

They glanced at each other and then back at us.

Joey shook his head. Jesse nodded.

Gabriella giggled and I arched an eyebrow.

“Well, now that you’ve both agreed, go upstairs and get ready.” I turned my attention to Ryan and Troy. “Ryan, find an outfit for your boyfriend. Troy, find us a club.”

“Me?”

“Of course. You’re the jock, and if years of TV have taught me anything it’s that you’ll have the connections to find one.”

He grimaced and mumbled something I couldn’t quite hear. Ryan punched him in the arm.

I looked over Gabriella’s clothes.

I stood and motioned for her to follow. “We need to find you something to wear.”

I caught the plaintive glance she tossed Ryan.

“Oh, don’t expect him to save you. You’re mine now.”

She sighed and followed me.

She followed me into my room, and I opened my closet.

“Sharpay, you really don’t have to…”

I turned and took in her clothes. Tennis shoes with blue jeans and a sweatshirt. “Oh, but I do.”

She sighed again.

“Don’t be so dramatic Gabi. Most of the girls at East High would kill for access to _my_ wardrobe.”

“I don’t think pink is my color.”

I turned and examined her complexion. “No, you’re probably right.”

I pulled out a red dress and held it up to her. “Hmm… not bad… but I can do better.”

I considered an old, but still stylish, beige dress I had from a previous show, bud decided it was too hippy for a club.

I turned to look at her. “Go shave your legs.”

She blushed. “What?”

I took her by the shoulders and spun her towards the bathroom. “Legs, shave, now.”

She went into the bathroom, and I heard water running.

“What shoe size are you?”

“Ten.”

“God, your feet our huge.”

“Hey!”

“I’ll have to see if there’s anything in mother’s closet. Don’t leave that bathroom until you’re done.”

I raided my mother’s wardrobe, and found a pair of green pumps that I thought would fit Gabriella. They wouldn’t be comfortable, but that wasn’t the point. And I had the perfect dress to go with them.

When she emerged from the bathroom I held the dress up to her. “Emerald green, I knew it. It’s perfect for your skin tone.”

She took the dress and smiled.

I handed her the pumps and pointed her back towards the bathroom.

I changed into a little pink number of my own, and transferred the contents of my purse into the matching handbag.

I looked myself over in the mirror. “Fabulous.”

I heard the bathroom door open, and regarded Gabriella in the mirror. “Well, it’s not perfect, but it’ll have to do.”

She stuck her tongue out at me.

We descended the stairs, to find the boys waiting at the bottom.

Jesse and Joey were wearing dress shirts with slacks, I would have to take those two shopping.

Ryan was wearing a pinstripe suit with a sparkling blue shirt and matching hat.

He’d dressed Troy in black slacks and a blue dress shirt that was at least a size to small for him, revealing his toned physique. Ryan was lucky to land a boy that looked like that.

“Ready?” Ryan asked as we reached the base of the stairs.

“I was born ready.”

We left the house and split up. Joey went with Ryan, Jesse with me, and Gabriella with Troy.


	13. Chapter 13

I followed Ryan, and he in turn followed Troy’s monstrous and ancient truck into downtown.

We arrived in a dingy and parking lot with little lighting. When we exited the car I could hear the audible thumping echoing out of the nearby club.

“This areas a little rundown. You’d better have found us a good club, Troy.”

He flashed me a smile. “Trust me, it’s fabulous.”

As we got in line I noticed that everyone else in the line was male, and dressed… flamingly.

“Troy? Is this a gay club?”

His only answer was a wicked grin.

I nudged Gabriella. “Remind me to kill him later.”

She nodded.

We waited in the line for half an hour.

At last we reached the front, and the leather-clad bouncer gave us all the once over, his eyes lingering on Jesse and Joey.

But he lifted the rope and allowed us in.

The first thing I noticed upon stepping inside was the sound. It was more than deafening; I could feel it cascading through my entire body. The next thing I noticed were the flashing lights, followed by the dance floor filled with gay men grinding against each other.

The boys were all checked out half a dozen times within the first minute we were there. I noticed most of them lingered on Troy.

Ryan noticed too and placed his arm around Troy’s waist, shooting glares at any man who let his eyes linger on Troy too long.

Gabriella and I were met with a few surprised looks, but nothing more.

Our group made its way to the only available table large enough to hold all six of us; it was located in the far corner far from the gyrating mass of humanity that was the dance floor.

Troy looked at me and said something. But I couldn’t hear him.

He leaned in close, and yelled over the music. “Drink?”

“Iced Tea.” I shouted at him.

He nodded and turned to Gabriella.

Ryan got Jesse and Joey’s orders, and then the two of them made their way towards the bar.

Gabriella was looking around the club, her eyes taking in everything, her almost perpetual smile plastered to her face.

Jesse and Joey looked less enthused to be there. I saw Joey take Jesse’s hand and squeeze it.

Troy and Ryan returned with a waiter carrying our drink orders.

I took a sip of my iced tea as it was handed to me, and set it on the table.

Everyone else had what appeared to be water.

Ryan took off his jacket and hung it on the back of his chair.

Troy was about to sit down when Ryan grabbed his arm and pulled him off towards the dance floor, where they were the best dressed couple.

Joey’s eyes followed them, and then he turned to look at Jesse.

He nodded towards the dance floor, but Jesse shook his head.

Joey sighed and took a drink of his water.

Gabriella poked me in the side, and I turned to look at her. She looked from me to the boys still at our table. Her expression seemed to say, ‘do something.’

I shrugged. I didn’t know what she expected me to do about it.

She sighed and stood up. She grabbed Jesse’s arm and pulled him from his chair. She then proceeded to push him to the dance floor.

He cast a panicked look over his shoulder at his boyfriend. Joey gave him the same wicked smile Troy had given me in the parking lot.

Joey watched Gabriella and his boyfriend dance for about five minutes, then stood up and offered me his hand.

I accepted it, and allowed him to lead me to the floor.

We didn’t dance together long. He orchestrated the switch of partners with Gabriella, and before Jesse even knew what had happened he was dancing with his boyfriend.

Gabriella and I danced together for the rest of the song. I think. It was hard to tell where one song stopped and the next started. We returned to the table and sat down, giggling.

“You’re good.” I shouted at her.

She looked at me confused.

I leaned in closer and repeated. “You’re good.”

She smiled and gave me a thumbs up.

We watched the boys dance for a while. I sipped my iced tea.

They at least were having fun, but there wasn’t much for Gabriella or me to do. It was for the best Troy had selected a gay club, I wasn’t ready to be flirting and dancing yet. In my heart I wasn’t sure I’d ever be ready.

I glanced at Gabriella. Her smile was gone, and from the sad look on her face I knew her thoughts mirrored my own.

I pulled out a twenty and set it on the table.

Gabriella looked at me.

“Who do you think will come back first?” I shouted.

She smiled and nodded. She pulled out a twenty of her own and set it on top of mine. “Jesse.” She shouted back.

I nodded. “Troy.”

She nodded.

We returned our attention to the dance floor, and waited.

I was certain Troy would get tired first, but I’d failed to take his stamina into account.

To both of our surprise it was Jesse who led an exhausted Joey back to our table.

He held out the chair for his boyfriend, and Joey collapsed into it, taking several gulps of his water.

Jesse smiled and sat down next to him, moving his chair close to his lover.

Gabriella smiled and took the money from the table.

I glared at Joey. “You just cost me twenty bucks.”

Joey didn’t seam to here, but Jesse gave me a smile.

It wasn’t long after that when the music stopped. I pulled out my cell phone and checked the time. It was only ten, they couldn’t be closing already.

Ryan and Troy returned, blushed and sweaty from their gyrations on the floor. Both collapsed into their seats and took large drinks of their waters.

“What’s going on?” Gabriella asked.

Troy gulped for air. “Time for the show.”

“Show?” I raised my eyebrow.

He winked at me.

Ryan laughed between pants.

The DJ disappeared from the stage, and a large woman in heavy makeup came on.

The dance floor cleared. Some took seats, some headed for the bar, and others made for the door.

“How y’all doing tonight?” The woman, no, the man said.

A few men at the tables whooped.

“I don’t think you heard me. I said, How y’all doing?”

This time, the response was louder. Troy and Ryan joined in. Jesse blushed.

“Now gentlemen, give it up for Marsha Mellow!”

The lights went down and another drag queen took the stage singing a Tina Turner song.

The drag show was hilarious. The drag queens really knew how to work their audience and some of them had fabulous fashion sense.

One of them, going by the name Amanda Playwith, came over to our table and draped himself on Jesse. Just like cats drag queens seemed to gravitate to the most uncomfortable person in the room.

“Mmm… hey baby. What’s your name?”

He held the microphone in front of the panicked boy.

“Uh… Jesse.”

“Uh… Jesse huh? And is this your boyfriend, Uh… Jesse?” The drag queen looked at Joey.

“Yes.”

“Well he’d better be careful, or I might just take you home myself.”

Jesse blushed, everyone else in the club laughed.

Amanda stood up and launched into a Madonna medley, giving Jesse a wink as he finished.

The show ended before midnight.

“Well, we should go. Place switches to over twenty-one at midnight.” Troy said.

I arched an eyebrow. “You seem to know a lot about this place.”

He laughed. “What can I say? I have good sources.”

We walked into the street laughing as the dance music resumed behind us. I surveyed the line waiting to get in as we passed it. There was no way some of those kids were over twenty-one.

“We _so_ need to get fake IDs.” I said as we reached the cars.

Ryan and Joey nodded.

“You mean like this?” Troy pulled something from his wallet.

I looked at it. The name was fake, but the picture was of Troy. “Where did you get that?”

He laughed. “Jason made them for the team last year.”

Ryan laughed. “Ya know, for an idiot, he’s really handy.”

Everyone laughed, even Gabriella.

Jesse and I arrived home first, followed by Troy and Gabriella.

As soon as Ryan and Joey arrived, Jesse tackled his boyfriend and half-led half-drug Joey upstairs to their room.

Gabriella laughed. “Well I guess someone had a good time.”

“He wasn’t the only one.” Troy said, and then scooped my brother up and carried him up the stairs.

I rolled my eyes. “Great, now I won’t get to sleep for hours.”

Ryan blew a raspberry at me from the top of the stairs.

Gabriella looked at me. “TV?”

I nodded. “We’ll need to turn the volume up.”

* * *

I slept late the next morning; it was almost noon when I woke up. Gabriella and I had forced ourselves to stay up until the screams from upstairs had died down. I made a note to buy Ryan a muzzle for Troy.

I found Jesse and Joey’s door still locked when I exited my room, so guessed I was the first person up. I unlocked their door, but didn’t bother to knock. Their room was right next to Ryan’s so I doubted they got to sleep any earlier than I did.

The downstairs was quiet, which shouldn’t have surprised me, but I wasn’t used to being the first one up anymore.

I made my way into the silent kitchen and considered what to do about breakfast. Cooking it myself was out, not that I wasn’t willing to try, but Zeke had once said that in a cook-off between me and an orangutan, the ape would win.

I smiled as I looked through the freezer. It was the first time I’d been able to think of Zeke and smile in a long time. Jesse had been right, Zeke wouldn’t want me spending the rest of my life mourning him, but I still wished he was with me.

I closed the freezer and moved towards the pantry, I found several boxes of cereal, all of questionable age. I poured myself a bowl and went to the living room.

I sat on the couch and turned the TV on; I looked around for Saturday morning cartoons, but found none.

I glanced up the stairs to be certain no one was watching, and changed the channel to ESPN. If anyone did come downstairs I could pretend to have just been turning passed it.

I kept the volume low, and watched a few NBA highlights before I heard one of the upstairs doors open. I changed the channel to Lifetime before Gabriella descended the stairs.

“How’s the cereal?” She asked.

I glanced at the half eaten bowl in my lap. “Stale.”

I took another bite.

She made her way into the kitchen, and emerged with her own bowl and spoon.

“So last night was fun.” She said and then took a bite of her cereal.

I nodded. “After the dancing stopped. I don’t know why anyone would go to a dance club; I think I’ve suffered permanent hearing loss.”

She laughed.

“So how long do you think it’ll be before any of the boys get up?” I asked.

“Well, between dancing at the club and… uh… _dancing_ upstairs I think it’ll be a while.”

We watched some sappy Lifetime original movie about a woman in an abusive relationship who found the strength to leave, and had started another before Joey came down the stairs.

“Oh my God, Gabriella! Look, one of them is still alive.” I shouted.

She snickered.

Joey gave me a sleep glare as he headed into the kitchen.

He emerged with two bowls of cereal on a tray and headed towards the stairs.

“Aww.” Gabriella and I said in unison.

He rolled his eyes but otherwise pretended not to have heard us.

We finished the second movie, which had a plot very similar to the first.

“Are they aware that there is more than one plot in the world?”

Gabriella shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

I shrugged and took my empty bowl, and Gabriella’s, into the kitchen.

Ryan and Troy were coming down the stairs when I returned to the living room.

“Wow, two more survivors.” Gabriella smirked.

I laughed and nodded before returning to my seat on the sofa.

“Well, it sounded like you two had fun last night.” I looked from Ryan to Troy as I spoke.

Troy’s cheeks reddened and he looked away.

Ryan just mumbled a contented sound and made his way into the kitchen.

We were half-way through a third movie, again with the same plot, before they emerged again.

Both looked breathless.

“What were you two doing in there?” I asked.

Ryan winked at me, and then led his boyfriend up the stairs.

“You don’t think they’re going to…” Gabriella left the question hanging.

It was answered a moment later by a loud moan from the vicinity of Ryan’s room.

I looked at her, horror in my eyes. “Shopping?”

She nodded.

I grabbed my purse from upstairs and met her at my car.


	14. Chapter 14

As with the last musical, Kelsi’s new show received four performances, Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, and a Sunday matinee.

Daddy and Mother returned from their respective trips in time to catch the Saturday and Sunday shows.

Gabriella did well… I guess.

Joey and Ryan were fantastic individually, but lacked any real chemistry together. The stage kiss at the end of the first show was the worst I’d seen since Ryan and I played Romeo and Juliet during our freshmen year. Yeah, that had been awkward.

Of course, their chemistry wasn’t helped at all by having Troy and Jesse front row center at every performance. They didn’t say anything about it, but I could tell by the looks they were giving Ryan and Joey that they were both jealous enough to want to make sure nothing happened between their boyfriends.

Our parents didn’t seem to notice though. They beamed and gave Ryan a standing ovation at both shows they attended. It was the first time he starred in a play and I didn’t. I was jealous, but I knew he deserved it. It was strange seeing him in the spotlight without me.

The winter musical finished at last, that Monday Mrs. Jewls announced that she had selected _The Tempest_ as the final play of the year, and for most of us the final play of our high school careers.

Chad was displeased. “Shakespeare? Isn’t that a little old fashioned?”

Ryan and I gaped at him. Frail Mrs. Jewls looked like she’d been struck.

“How is it, Mr. Danforth, that one who has been in so many drama classes, has gained so little appreciation for the bard?” Mrs. Jewls was upset as she spoke.

Chad shrugged. “Just doesn’t seem very important to modern culture is all.”

“Not very important? Do you have any idea how many of your popular movies steal ideas that he first made famous?”

Chad shrugged again.

Mrs. Jewls glared at Chad. “Well. In the interest of furthering everyone’s understanding of Shakespeare, I’ve got an assignment for you. Each of you is to choose your favorite of his plays, and write a ten-page critical evaluation of it. They will be due next Wednesday.”

Everyone groaned, and more than a few dirty looks were cast at Chad.

* * *

If the assignment was bad for everyone else, it was worse for me. The moon would be new that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the second new moon since I’d been bitten. Being a jaguar was going to cut into the time I would have to write the stupid paper.

I gave consideration to hunting Chad down and biting him. Okay, not much consideration, but the thought did occur to me.

To make matters worse, Ryan insisted on going over basic yoga with me everyday after school. He said it was the only way I’d ever learn to control it.

Our parents were away again. Daddy had to go away on business, and Ryan and I convinced our mother to go surprise him.

I was nervous all day at school that Thursday. I didn’t pay attention in a single class; my mind was fixated on the impending transformation.

I drove Jesse home, although it was beginning to seem that our imprisonment of he and his boyfriend was now more out of habit then necessity.

“Can we watch?” He asked as we approached the house.

“What?”

“I was just wondering if we could watch. It might go along way to helping Joey get over things.”

I thought about it. “You’ll have to ask Ryan. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

He nodded.

Ryan and Joey had beaten us home, and Jesse wasted no time in asking.

“Hey Ryan, Sharpay said I had to ask you. Can we watch? Tonight I mean.”

Joey’s eyes went wide; I guessed that Jesse had cleared his odd question with him first.

Ryan appeared to mull it over. “Well… I don’t think so. Not tonight. I don’t really know much about Nagual, so tonight might be a bit… bumpy.”

“Bumpy?” I asked, my eyes going wide.

He shrugged.

“But, if tonight goes okay, and Sharpay is up for it tomorrow, it should be fine.”

Troy came over with Gabriella, and the six of us ate a quiet dinner. Everyone kept looking at me like I was a zoo animal or something.

After dinner Ryan followed me to my room while the others lingered in the living room.

“You should take off your clothes.”

“What?”

“Well, you don’t want to rip them, do you?”

I sighed and went into the bathroom. I stripped off all my clothes and put on a light robe.

I emerged from the bathroom and took a seat on my bed.

Ryan looked at the clock, I followed his gaze.

“Sunset is in six minutes. You ready for this, Sis?”

I laughed. “What do you think?”

“Look at it this way. It won’t be as bad as my first time.”

I wasn’t in the mood for platitudes. “You’re right. I won’t have to worry that I killed my boyfriend, because something else already did.”

He frowned at me.

We watched the minutes tick by in silence.

The time Ryan had identified as sunset came, and another minute ticked by. I began to think that maybe they’d been wrong, maybe I wouldn’t change.

That’s when I felt it.

It was like the feeling you get when your leg falls asleep, but it was coming from the base of my spine. It wasn’t quite painful, but still I wouldn’t describe it as pleasant either.

I stood up.

The sensation traveled up my back and into my head. The sensation passed and was soon replaced with a warm tingling that seemed to be radiating from my tailbone.

The tingling spread from my spine throughout my body, and I felt a pressure building. It was like my entire being was attempting to hold its breath.

The pressure didn’t hurt, but it was uncomfortable. I felt the pressure building in my rear release first. One moment I was feeling the silk robe on only my legs, the next I felt it against my legs and… tail?

I felt the pressure in my legs release then, and I fell forward onto my hands. I looked back to see that my hind limbs were no longer jointed like those of a human, but like those of a great cat.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. As I expelled it, I willed the pressure in the rest of my body to release.

I opened my eyes and looked at the snow white paws on the ground before me. I reached out, and saw one of the paws move.

I looked from them up at my brother. Ryan’s face showed an even mixture of interest and worry.

He attempted to help me remove the robe, but the right sleeve snagged on one of my claws. I tried to retract it, but by the time I discovered how to do that it was too late for the garment.

I sniffed at the air, and felt a dormant presence awaken within the recesses of my mind.

I took another sniff, and panic flooded through me.

Wolves, several of them. There were other predators here, predators who’d marked this place as their own.

Worse, one of them was standing over me.

I could tell by the smell that I was outnumbered.

I cowered before the intimidating presence and retreated into a corner of the room. My eyes darted about, seeking an escape.

I glanced over to the window, but felt my heart fall as I saw the bars on the other side.

I considered the bathroom, but there was no exit from there, I’d be cornered and at the wolves’ mercy.

“Sharpay!”

I snapped back to my senses.

I quelled the cat’s fear. Of course there were wolves in my house, the place was lousy with them lately, but they were my friends, and my brother. I was safe here.

The cat didn’t quite believe me.

I shook my head, and my entire body gave a shiver, like a cat when it’s been dunked in water.

Ryan took a half step forward, and I looked up into his worried eyes.

“Are you okay?”

I nodded.

“Do you want to go downstairs?”

The cat part of me didn’t, that’s where the wolves were. I wasn’t feeling confident about it either, but I knew that I had to get it under control. The cat was just going to have to learn to deal.

I nodded again.

Ryan strode to the bedroom door and opened it.

The scents of Troy and Gabriella wafted into the room. I had to struggle to hold the cat back; it was convinced that running was a very good idea.

I forced myself to the door, battling against my inner feline each step.

Once I was through the door Ryan swung it shut behind me.

I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard it latch.

“If you don’t have it under control, you don’t have to do this.”

I looked at him, and shook my head. I wasn’t about to let my inner kitten’s fear control _me_. Nothing controls me, but me.

I turned towards the top of the stairs, and advanced towards the offending smells.

I prowled down the stairs, and allowed myself a moment to bask in the fluid grace of my movements. This wasn’t so bad. I could definitely get used to this.

There were several gasps as I entered the living room. It was good to know that I hadn’t lost my touch.

I smiled at Joey, his eyes widened and he squirmed. I imagined that at the moment my smile was even more intimidating than usual.

I turned my attention to Troy and Gabriella, seated on the far couch.

The cat roared in the deep recesses of my mind, a mixture of challenge and panic.

A short growl escaped my throat before I could stifle it.

Jesse jumped. One moment he was sitting on the couch, the next he was standing on it, Joey in front of him.

I considered trying to reassure him with a smile, but decided that wouldn’t be very reassuring at all.

I opted instead to stroll to the middle of the room, and sit down.

“How’s it going, Sharpay?” Ryan’s voice came from behind me.

I scrunched up my nose, or at least I tried to, and attempted a shrug.

“I don’t think her… cat… likes the way we smell.” Gabriella said.

I glanced at her and nodded.

“I didn’t think about that.” Ryan said.

“Well, it isn’t exactly natural; a mountain lion hanging out with a wolf pack.” Troy said.

I turned to see Ryan nod.

“Do you think you’ll be okay down here, Sis?”

I nodded as I forced the panic stricken jaguar down again. It was going to get used to this if it killed it.

* * *

I awoke on the ground near my bed at dawn the next morning.

I stretched and stood up. My body was my own again. I glanced down my naked body, and noticed that my legs looked like I hadn’t shaved in a month, in a word, they were disgusting.

I sighed. This was getting old.

I showered, and spent extra time making sure I got all of the offensive stubble.

By the time I made it downstairs everyone else was up and in the kitchen eating breakfast.

Ryan looked up as I entered. “So how was it?”

I shrugged. “Not too bad, except that my inner jaguar is terrified of you.”

Troy laughed. “So you’re saying that you’re a were-scaredy-cat?”

I rolled my eyes. “At least I’m more of a Wildcat then you’ll ever be, Bolton.”

Ryan and Troy both laughed.

Jesse and Joey looked confused.

Ryan attempted to explain the joke to them, but nothing is funny after it’s explained.

I took a seat at the table and munched on some toast, followed by eggs, then some bacon, and then some waffles. I hadn’t realized how hungry I’d been.

Jesse and Joey looked astonished at how much I ate. Ryan and Troy were unsurprised, however.

“Is that normal?” Joey asked.

Ryan looked from Joey to the empty plates arrayed before me. “Using a different plate for each thing she gets? No, but that’s Sharpay.”

“Very funny, Ryan.” I punched his arm.

“It’s not normal and you know it. If you had to wash those yourself you’d use one plate like the rest of us.”

Troy cuffed the back of his head.

“Ow. What?”

“Be nice to your sister.” Troy said.

Ryan glared at Troy and then pouted.

“Oh, don’t pout.” Troy said.

“Or what?” Ryan shot back, and deepened his pout.

“You asked for it.” Troy launched himself at my brother and began tickling him.

Ryan fell out of his chair squealing.

Jesse, Joey, and I laughed.

* * *

School seamed louder than normal that day. I could hear whispered conversations in the back of the room, papers rustling, everything. It made focusing on what my teachers had to say harder than normal.

As the afternoon progressed I felt the stirrings of the cat awakening within my mind.

It was less than thrilled to find out how many wolves were around, but it wasn’t awake enough to do anything.

By the end of the day I had a vicious headache.

I drove Jesse home after last period, as always.

“You seemed distracted all day?”

“It was… kind of loud.”

“What do you mean?”

I shrugged. “I could hear everything. It was loud.”

“It must be weird, being what you are.”

I laughed. “You have no idea.”

“Are you worried about tonight?”

I shrugged again. “Not really.”

He was silent for a while. “Can we watch?”

I glanced at him. “What is your obsession with watching?”

He shrugged.

I sighed. “You’ll have to ask Ryan.”

When we arrived home I left Jesse in the living room and went to my room.

I took four Advil, it was way above the recommended dosage, but I didn’t think any less would touch the pain throbbing in my temples.

There was a knock on my door, it sounded like thunder.

“Come in.”

Ryan opened the door and came in.

“You okay, Sis?”

“Ugh… how do you turn this stupid hearing off?”

“What do you mean?”

“Me hearing, it’s been tuned up all day. I can hear everything. I can hear you breathing right now; I can hear your heart beating.”

“Uh… that’s never happened to me.”

“Great.”

“You stay here; I’m going to call Kelsi.”

He walked out of the room, shutting the door with as little noise as he could manage.

The Advil had started to have the desire effect when he returned.

“Well?” I snapped.

“She said it’s used to happen to Jason lot, things just get stuck on for a while.”

“Did she say what to do about it?”

“It shouldn’t last passed the new moon, and it’ll get better as you learn control.”

I nodded. “Jesse wants to watch tonight.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. “I don’t know why. But it’s your choice, Shar.”

“Might as well let them, if they think it’ll help with their issues.”

I changed into the light robe before sunset, the one I’d already shredded a little the night before. It didn’t quite live up to my fashion sense, but there was no point to damaging another garment.

Ryan and the boys returned as the sun began to dip below the horizon.

“You two can watch, but you have to stand over here and stay quiet, okay?”

They nodded.

He sat down on the floor at the foot of my bed and motioned for me to join him.

I did so.

“Okay Shar, you know what to expect now. So tonight we’re going to try and work on a little control.”

I nodded.

“You should feel the tingling any minute now. When you do, try to push it down. Try to keep it in the base of your spine for as long as you can.”

Yeah sure, that was easy for captain yoga to say.

I guessed that the sun had set when the tingling began to rise up my spine. I felt the cat in mind yawn and stretch.

I focused on the tingling, and tried to hold it down.

At first it seemed to be working, but as the minutes ticked by the effort necessary to keep it from advancing increased.

My entire body shook under the strain.

“Take a deep breath.”

I obeyed.

I held the tingling at bay as long as I could, but at last my concentration snapped and it enveloped my spine.

Uncomfortable pressure began building throughout my body.

“Okay. Now I want you to hold the pressure, don’t let it win yet. Open your eyes and look at your hand.”

I hadn’t even realized I’d closed my eyes. I opened them and focused my attention on my right hand.

“Now relax just your hand. Let the pressure release itself there, and only there.”

White fur sprouted from my arm. My fingers retracted as my nails grew harder, sharper, thicker.

I watched as it too formed into a forepaw.

Either Jesse or Joey gasped from their place by the doorway. Probably Jesse.

“Now your other hand.”

Ryan cast an annoyed glare in their direction before returning his attention to me.

“You’re doing well. Now do your legs, and then your body.”

It felt great to let the uncomfortable pressure out. Part by part my body relaxed into the shape of a jaguar.

The cat mind sprang to full wakefulness, but this time it was more annoyed at my brother’s presence then panicked.

I looked up at my brother, and flashed him a toothy grin.

Ryan stood up, and helped me out of my robe.

He turned to the boys then, and I followed his gaze.

Their expressions were indecipherable.

“And that’s all there is to it.”


	15. Chapter 15

My hearing was still intensified on Saturday; I spent most of the day in my room watching TV with the volume turned way down.

I made more progress that night, but still found myself in the body of a cat after an hour of intense concentration.

I was downstairs watching a movie with Ryan, Troy, and the two erstwhile hunters when Troy’s phone rang.

“Hello?”

I found that my hearing was sharp enough to make out the voice on the other end of the line as well.

“Troy, we need you, Ryan, and Sharpay to come over. We all have a problem.” Mr. Bolton said.

“Uh… Sharpay’s not really in _shape_ to go anywhere right now.”

I heard his father sigh on the other end of the phone. “Are their parents in town?”

“No.”

“Okay, we’re coming over there then. The whole pack. So make sure things are _clean_ when we get there.”

Troy nodded. “I understand.”

His father hung up, and Troy closed his phone.

Ryan looked at Troy.

“The pack is coming over.”

“What? Why?”

Troy shook his head. “I have no idea, but it can’t be good.”

“Pack?” Jesse asked, a worried look on his face.

Troy nodded. “I hate to do this to you guys, but you’re going to need to go upstairs. They still don’t know about you.”

Ryan nodded.

Joey stood up and helped his boyfriend up. “We understand.”

Troy followed them upstairs to lock them in for the night. For once we were locking them in as much for their own good as ours.

Ryan paced, worry clouding his features.

Fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the front door. Troy answered it while Ryan waited with me.

The scent of even more wolves reached my nose, and I had to force my panic-stricken inner beast down.

It was harder than normal, these wolves didn’t smell familiar, and I wasn’t certain to my own safety. Ryan hadn’t gone into details, but I knew there was a lot of bad blood between Oborotni and Nagual.

Troy’s parents entered the room first, followed by Kelsi’s parents and then Jason’s. Troy, Gabriella, Kelsi, and Jason followed the adults into the room.

I could smell fear on them.

Gabriella’s father entered last, casting his Cheshire cat grin at me as he did so.

Except for Troy’s parents, the other adults looked less than pleased to see me, but said nothing.

“What’s going on?” Troy asked.

“They’ve started attacking people.” Kelsi’s mother answered.

“There’s too many of them for us to fight on our own.” Gabriella’s father said.

The parents, with the exception of Gabriella’s father, sat down on the sofas.

Meli took a seat on the ground near me.

“What are they?” Ryan asked.

All eyes turned to Gabriella’s father.

He sighed, his almost perpetual grin fading. “Eaters of the dead.”

“Which means what?” Kelsi asked.

“They are a plague that follows man, for like us they are born from man. Before my people, and I don’t mean the Nagual, came to live in this place, there were other people here. It is said that they warred with the other peoples, and feasted upon the dead. For their unnatural hunger the spirits cursed them, or so it is said. Long ago we performed a great rite; we hoped to forever bind them beneath the earth.”

“But the construction at Lava Springs woke them up.” Ryan said.

Meli nodded.

“There weren’t such things as cities in those times, so they were few enough and easy for a dedicated few to defeat, but here… now…”

“So you’re saying the city makes it worse?” Jason asked.

“Yes, pup. Where they used to have to travel days for a meal, they now live in a warren of ready made tunnels beneath a near endless feast.”

“But I thought you were hunting them down.” Troy said.

“We are, but there’s more than the seven of us can handle.” Jason’s mother said.

“But, we may not have to kill them all. I think I found where there king is nesting.”

“They have a king?” Gabriella asked.

Her father nodded. “The oldest of them. According to the legend he was the priest of their tribe, the one who commanded them to eat their fallen enemies.”

“He’s also the only one able to make more of their kind, which we know of.” Kelsi’s father said.

“So if you take him out, there won’t be anymore?” Ryan asked.

“That’s what we hope.” Kelsi’s mother said.

“But we’re going to need you, all of you, to fight with us.” Jason’s father said while looking at me.

“And it’s going to be dangerous.” Troy’s mother said.

A mixture of emotions battled within me. I was being offered the chance for my revenge, I should have been exultant, but instead I was afraid. What if Ryan died? What if Troy died? What if Gabriella died? I didn’t want to risk losing anyone else.

Ryan and Troy looked at each other, worry evident on both their faces.

“Alright, let’s go rip these things some more new assholes.” Jason said.

“Jason, this is serious.” Kelsi said.

Jason’s father beamed with pride.

Troy’s parents shook their heads, their expressions mirroring those of their son and my brother.

“We came to tell you tonight, because you need to get ready. Meli has found the entrance to their central nest. After we kill the king, the rest should scatter.” Troy’s father said.

“Scatter? You mean to other cities?” Ryan asked.

Kelsi’s mother nodded. “It’s the best we can do.”

Ryan looked at Gabriella’s father. “But they’ll kill even more people if we let them out. Can’t you seal them up again?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t perform the rite myself, and there’s no one left alive who’d know how to do it.”

“So we just drive them off and let them be some other city’s problem?”

Meli shrugged. “Hopefully we’ll thin their numbers enough that they won’t be a serious threat anywhere else, and hopefully there won’t be anymore once the king is dead.”

He didn’t sound very hopeful if he said it. I wished that I had vocal cords with which to voice my worries.

“You hope? If we’re going to risk our lives, shouldn’t we have a bit more than ‘hope’?” Trust Ryan to know what I wanted to say.

“I’m open to suggestions, pup.”

Ryan turned to look at Troy again. I could tell he was trying to think.

“I know Jason can handle himself in a fight, but we’ve got a week to train the rest of you.” Jason’s father said.

“A week? You expect us to learn how to fight in a week?” Troy said.

“The half moon is the best time; it’s the only time when we can all shift.” Troy’s father said.

“I know this is a lot to take in. We’re asking you to do something horrible, but it’s the only option. We’ll let you have tonight to get used to it, but tomorrow you start your crash course in combat.” Kelsi’s mother stood when she finished speaking.

The parents all left then, including Gabriella’s father.

Kelsi and Jason left with their parents. Gabriella stayed behind.

“Well shit.” Troy said.

Ryan nodded.

Gabriella half-sat half-collapsed onto a couch.

“Remember last year when the biggest thing we had to worry about was Twinkle Town?” Gabriella asked.

Ryan, Troy, and I nodded.

“I miss that.”

We all nodded again.

“Jesse and Joey are locked up?” Gabriella asked.

“We couldn’t let the rest of the pack know about them.” Troy said.

She nodded.

“We’ve just been drafted.” Ryan said, ignoring Gabriella’s attempt to change the subject.

“Too bad they let gays serve in this military.” Troy said with a sigh.

* * *

I woke up at dawn the next morning, and took another long shower.

I dug to the back of my closet and found some blue jeans and a t-shirt; it took me a while longer to locate some old sneakers.

I looked at myself in the mirror and frowned. It was a horrible outfit, but I didn’t think my usual attire was suited for combat training with a pack of werewolves.

Troy and Gabriella were already up when I entered the kitchen, whispering in hushed tones. I was grateful that I couldn’t hear them, my heightened sense had returned to normal with the passing of the new moon.

They looked at me as I entered, and motioned for me to join them. Heaps of bacon and eggs awaited me on the table.

“Who cooks all this, all the time?”

“Me.” Troy said.

“Basketball god, drama aficionado, and cook?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Too bad he’s gay, isn’t it?” Gabriella said.

I laughed. “It is. But he makes my brother happy, which is something at least.”

Troy beamed.

“What are we going to do with Jesse and Joey, Sharpay?” Gabriella asked after swallowing a mouthful of scrambled egg.

“What do you mean?”

“Jason’s dad is going to try and teach us ‘combat techniques’ whatever those are. We all have to go, and we can’t bring them with us.”

“Do you really think he’d kill them?” I asked.

Troy nodded. “Or worse, bite them and draft them like the rest of us.”

“But we can’t leave them locked in their room for a week.” Gabriella said.

I nodded and shoved some bacon into my mouth. They were both right.

“We’ll have to let them go.” Ryan’s voice came from the doorway.

“I don’t know if that’s an option, Ry. I still don’t trust Joey.”

He took a seat next to me, across from Troy. “I don’t think any of us do. But we don’t have any other choice. If we leave them locked up, they’ll hate us again. If we bring them along they’ll either be dead or they’ll be forced to fight those things with us.”

“But they know too much about us.”

“Depending on how the attack goes, that may not matter.” Gabriella said.

Everyone went silent, knowing she was right. The things had killed Jose, a much more capable combatant than any of us could hope to be in a week. There was a very good chance I’d be with Zeke again sooner then I wanted.

“We could leave town. They can’t make us fight if we aren’t here.” Ryan said.

Troy shook his head. “If we don’t try to stop them, more people will die. My parents will die if we aren’t there to help them.”

“But if we do fight, we could die.” Gabriella said.

“We have to fight. They already took Zeke from me; I can’t let them take anyone else.” I said with resolve that I didn’t quite feel.

“Fighting is the right thing.” Troy said.

Ryan and Gabriella nodded.

“Give me your keys.” I held my hand out.

Ryan and Troy removed the keys from their key chains and handed them to me. I then took out my own and went upstairs.

I unlocked the door to Jesse and Joey’s prison, and pounded on the door. “Rise and shine you two. We need to talk, get downstairs.”

I returned to breakfast and waited.

About ten minutes later they joined us. I could tell I’d woken them; both of them had terrible bed head.

“What’s going on?” Joey asked through a yawn.

I held out the keys to him.

He reached out his hand, and I dropped them in.

He stared at them.

“You’re free.” Troy said.

“What?” Joey asked.

“You’re free.” Ryan repeated.

“What do you mean?”

I sighed. “We can’t keep you locked up anymore. We can’t keep an eye on you. The only way we can be sure you’re safe is to let you go.”

Jesse looked at me. “What happened last night?”

Ryan shook his head. “You’re better off not knowing.”

“But where will we go?” Joey asked.

“You can stay here. Our parents love you guys.”

“What if we don’t want to?”

“I’ve been paying your rent; you can go back to your apartment if you want to. Or leave town. Whatever you want.” Ryan said.

Gabriella and I turned to look at him. I had no idea he’d been doing that.

Troy’s phone rang. He answered it.

“Hello?”

“We’ll be right over.”

He looked at the three of us then. “It’s time.”

I shoved a few more pieces of bacon into my mouth before standing.

I hugged Jesse as I walked passed him.

“What was that for?”

“Just in case you aren’t here when I get home.”


	16. Chapter 16

I rode with Ryan. Gabriella with Troy.

To my surprise we went to Jason’s house, for some reason I’d been expecting Troy’s.

Jason’s mother let us in. Her eyes focused on me the whole time. I found the fact that I made her so uncomfortable very satisfying.

She showed us to the basement. It smelled like blood and sweat. I spotted the silver cage Ryan had told me about shoved into the corner.

Ryan had seen it to, and was now trying to look anywhere but at it.

Troy took my brothers hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

Kelsi, Jason, and Jason’s father were already there.

I noticed that Kelsi’s shirt was in bad shape, there were half a dozen bloody cuts in it.

Jason’s father turned to look us over, his eyes lingering longest on me.

“Mr. Cross, I don’t really think Sharpay should be here. She’s only just changed.” Ryan said.

He was trying to protect me, but I couldn’t let him face whatever was going to happen alone. Well, he wouldn’t be alone, but I couldn’t let him face it without me, he’d faced too much without me already.

Mr. Cross looked at me. I shook my head in defiance.

He flicked his arm, and I felt pain erupt in my stomach.

Ryan and Troy turned to stare at me, matching looks of horror on their faces.

I looked down to see the hilt of a knife protruding from my stomach.

I reached for it, and pulled it out, grunting in pain as I did so. The pain faded almost as soon as it left my body.

I looked at the instrument of my pain, soaked in my own blood. It was vicious and jagged.

“What the fuck was that?” Ryan yelled.

Jason’s father looked at him. “Training. You’re all going to have to get used to pain.”

“That doesn’t excuse ruining my wardrobe.” I glared at the elder werewolf.

“You want to make something of it?” He reached to the wall behind him, which I saw was adorned with blades.

I took my t-shirt off, leaving myself in only a sports bra.

I grasped the hilt of the knife he’d thrown at me. “Yes. I think I do.”

I lunged for him.

He dodged out of the way, and cut a deep wound in my side.

He laughed. “She’s got spirit at least.”

Ryan rushed to my side and examined the sealing wound, before glaring at Mr. Cross.

Jason’s father laughed again. “Grab a weapon and line up kids. Let’s see if any of you can take me down.”

I looked at the bloody knife in my hand. It was lighter than I would have expected. Either that or I was stronger.

The hilt fit my hand well enough, and everything else on the wall looked to large for my petite frame.

“Wouldn’t guns be more effective?” Gabriella asked.

Mr. Cross shook his head. “They may not have our regenerative gifts, but bullets barely slow them down. Claws and blades are our most effective weapons.”

Troy took down a weapon similar to my own jagged blade, but much longer. He made an experimental swing, and shrugged.

Ryan chose a saber and Gabriella took down a knife, eyeing it with dread as she did so.

Troy went first, charging Jason’s father, wielding his sword more like a spear.

Mr. Cross sidestepped and punched the side of Troy’s head, sending him to the ground. “Next.”

Gabriella went next. She closed on our teacher with caution, he swung at her, but she managed to block it with a stiff arm. She swung her dagger low then, aiming for his gut, but he stepped out of range.

She overextended herself trying to reach him, and a blow to the back sent her to the ground with Troy.

“Not bad for your first try. Next.”

Ryan spun the saber he’d selected, as he’d learned in stage fighting, and attempted a lunge. Mr. Cross grabbed the blade in his hand and deflected it. He leaned in and shoved his blade into my brother’s stomach.

“This isn’t a fencing glass boy. There’s no right-of-way, don’t leave yourself open like that.”

I was next. I tightened my grip on the knife’s hilt and looked at him.

“Come on, pussycat; let’s see if you’ve learned anything.”

I feinted high with the blade, when he moved to block I kicked him in the crotch.

He gasped, and I followed with a downward slice. He pulled back, but not quite in time. The knife’s blade left a bloody line down his chest.

He turned his body sideways and thrust forward with his blade, shoving it under my bra and into a lung, I think.

“You fight dirty girl.” He grinned. “I like that.”

Kelsi attacked him next, her weapon a thinner, lighter version of Troy’s. She parried a several blows, and managed to draw blood several times, but in the end he punched her in the face with his knife hand, breaking her nose and sending her to the ground.

“Come on son. Let’s show them how real wolves fight.”

Jason grinned, and I noticed his weapons for the first time. He clutched a small blade, something like a switchblade, in each hand.

He and his father were brutal with each other. It was obvious that neither feared pain as they blocked each other’s blows with flesh more often than with metal.

Jason’s father maneuvered behind his son, and brought his blade to his son’s throat. They were both a bloody mess by this time, but neither seemed to care.

When Jason felt the steel bite into his neck he froze.

His father released him and turned to look at Troy. “You’re turn again.”

* * *

We spent eight hours in the basement. Neither food nor water was offered.

Mr. Cross mocked us every step of the way, taunting every mistake we made as though we were idiots.

Of the four of us new to combat, Ryan was doing the best by the end of the day.

In my final battle of the day Jason’s father blocked every attempt I made to strike him, the man was tireless.

He mocked me with each block, not even attempting to strike me, he was playing with me.

I felt a white hot rage building. In the middle of the fight I didn’t even notice the tingling in my spine.

I aimed my knife at his throat and thrust forward. He batted it aside with the palm of his hand, and then froze.

As I thrust with my right hand, my left hand had gone for a blow to his stomach. I looked down to see white fur covering my arm. My arm which was buried in his stomach.

I pulled it out to find it drenched in blood. Some of Mr. Cross’s intestines trailed out of wound, snagged on one of my claws.

Shock flooded my mind, and my hand returned to normal, thought still drenched in our teacher’s blood.

He looked from my hand to my eyes. “Good. You’re learning. Right now rage is your greatest weapon.”

Jason clapped me on the back.

Gabriella looked like she was going to throw up.

“That’s enough for today. I expect to see all of you bright and early tomorrow.”

That distracted Gabriella from her nausea. “But what about school?”

“Your parents will call you off sick. And you two,” he pointed at Ryan and me, “will have to call yourselves in sick. As of now _this_ is your school.”

“There’s no way my mom would call me in sick.” Gabriella protested.

“No, but your father will.”

Gabriella sighed.

“Won’t it look strange all of us taking off?” Ryan asked.

“Not as strange as the string of murders will if you don’t. Besides, you all hang out together; if one of you got sick it wouldn’t be too weird for the rest of you to get it too. As of now, you all officially have the flu.”

His tone indicated that the conversation was over.

* * *

I wasn’t sure whether or not to be surprised that Jesse and Joey were still there when Ryan and I arrived home.

For the first time in a long time, it was just the two of us that arrived home. Troy had taken an exhausted Gabriella home, and then gone home himself.

We showered at Jason’s, but were still exhausted and starving. Ryan had at least gotten the chance to take his shirt off before he’d had to fight. There was a bloody gash cut in my shirt over my stomach.

I hadn’t expected them to be in the living room. Jesse took one look at me and was on his feet. “Sharpay, what happened?”

I pushed passed him and towards the kitchen. “Nothing.”

“You’re not even trying to tell a good lie.” Joey said, following his boyfriend and me into the kitchen.

I shrugged as I opened the refrigerator.

“Guys. You’re better off not knowing.”

Joey snorted. “You mean _you’re_ better off.”

Ryan sighed and shook his head. “I wish I did.”

“Sharpay. What’s going on?” Jesse asked.

I shook my head and pulled out the makings of a sandwich.

“Come on, Jesse. If they don’t want to trust us, then, whatever.” Joey led his boyfriend back into the living room.

I groaned in frustration.

“It’s for their own good, Shar.”

“I know. I just wish that none of this had ever happened.”

He nodded and began fixing himself a monstrous sandwich.

* * *

I awoke the next morning, Ryan pounding on my door.

“Sharpay, you have to get up. We need to get going.”

I rolled over and stared at my clock, it was on five AM.

To my relief and surprise I wasn’t soar at all. I guessed that I had my ‘regenerative gifts’ as Jason’s father called them to thank for that.

I considered showering, but decided it didn’t matter. I’d be sweaty and covered in my own blood soon enough.

I threw on my clothes from the day before and exited my room to find Ryan waiting.

As we passed Jesse and Joey’s door I noticed Ryan’s car keys taped to the door.

“Your car?”

“They have to get to school somehow. But so help me, if there’s one scratch on it, they’ll pay.”

I laughed as we walked down the stairs.

I drove to Jason’s, and found Troy’s truck already parked in front.

We knocked on the door, and Jason’s still unnerved mother showed us to the basement.

Troy already had his shirt off and the bloody remnants of several wounds on his body.

“Nice of you two to join us.” Jason’s father sneered.

I noticed Jason and Kelsi engaged in a bloody melee in the corner.

I shot him a glare and removed my shirt.

I took my weapon from the wall. “Should we line up?”

He laughed. “Not so fast, princess. You’re all going to be fighting Jason today, so I can get a better look at your… technique.”

* * *

Jason went a bit easier on us than his father had. But not by much. At least he wasn’t taunting us as we fought him.

I had less luck than Troy and Ryan, but at least Jason fell more my feints more than his father did. By the end of the day I doubted a normal human would still be able to have children given the damage I lavished on his groin.

“I think you have the ball-shot down, kitten, but they aren’t all boys you know.” Jason’s father reprimanded me while Jason nursed his injury.

Gabriella did better than the previous day, but even with Mr. Cross’s pointers it was obvious she wasn’t cut out for a knife fight.

She took the brunt of our teacher’s humiliation for the day, and was a seething ball of rage before noon. If it had been closer to the full moon I had no doubt she’d have lost control of her form long before.

By the end of the day even Troy was able to give Jason a decent fight, but still found himself eventually losing every bout.

Ryan managed to barrel the more muscular boy over once, and gutted him with a backwards thrust of his saber, earning praise from both Jason and his father.

“They don’t like light, do they?” Gabriella asked as we finished our fights for the day.

“Not really, but unless you’re planning to carry an extension cord with you, that’s not going to help.” Jason’s father told her.

She shrugged, but I caught her smiling as we climbed the stairs to shower.

* * *

We left Jason’s at five, and this time Troy and Gabriella came home with us. I drove Gabriella while Ryan got a ride in Troy’s truck.

“Well, that was brutal.”

Gabriella nodded. “We need it though; it’s our only chance to make it out of this alive.”

I sighed. “I know.”

“You’re looking good in there.”

“You’re… not.”

She laughed. “I guess I’m not really cut out for this. I’ve always been a brains over brawn type of gal.”

I blinked. “You did not just say ‘gal’?”

She laughed again. “What can I say; all this southwestern culture is getting to me.”

“You have to fight it, Gabi, or next thing you know you’ll be at a drunken barn dance slurring ‘y’all’.”

She giggled. “I would never.”

“It’s a slippery slope, and no red neck has ever one a Nobel Prize.”

“How would you know?”

“You’d be surprised what I know.”

Our banter served to distract us from our fears. We had four more days of training before the half-moon. I didn’t think four more years would be enough.”

“Do you get the feeling that Jason’s father always wanted to be a drill instructor?” Gabriella asked after a few moments of worried silence.

I laughed. “He’d be perfect. Short, stocky, and mean.”


	17. Chapter 17

I never thought I’d miss going to school, but by Friday morning I wished I could do something that normal. It had been a brutal week. I’d learned a dozen different ways to kill, and other things no eighteen year old future drama major should ever have to know, like what her internal organs, and those of her brother and closest friends, look like.

I suspected that the only bones I hadn’t broken at least once were the tiny little ones in my ears.

Jesse and Joey had decided to stay at our house, gathering the last of their possessions from their tiny apartment and gotten out of the remainder of their lease.

Jesse kept trying to ask me questions, he wanted to know why none of us were going to school, but I didn’t give him any answers.

When the sun dawned that morning, we were already in Jason’s basement. The half-moon was that night. The assault on the thing’s king was that night.

For once we didn’t start the day off by losing a series of painful fights.

“You’ll need all your strength for tonight. Today we discuss the strategy, after you all get warmed up.”

We spent the morning doing simple drills. Troy and Kelsi’s parents, and Gabriella’s father were waiting for us when we came upstairs to shower before noon.

After showering we ate a huge lunch, it seemed like every dish imaginable had been prepared. At first I was puzzled, but then looking around the tables strewn across the Cross’s backyard I understood. For some of us, or for all of us, this might be our last meal.

I ate with relish. I’d already decided that if I was going to die, I was going to do it without regrets.

Ryan and Troy on the other hand only picked at their food, casting worried glances at each other over and over.

I almost envied them. They had something to lose, I didn’t.

If my death could save either of them, I’d die with a smile on my face, and as many of those things dead as I could manage.

Lunch lasted a long time, but when all the food was gone we returned to the basement.

“Time to discuss strategy.” Jason’s father said, holding up some rolled sheets of paper.

He rolled them out on the table, schematics of some sort. “This is a map of the sewers in the area where there nest is.”

Meli approached the table and tapped his finger near a junction. “The main entrance seems to be here. I’ve also found other entrances here, and here.” He tapped the schematics twice more.

“How many other entrances are there?” Troy’s father asked.

Gabriella’s father shrugged. “Who knows? I know there’s at least one in to the nearby graveyard, maybe two. It’s also in the oldest section of town, so there might be an exit into a basement or three.”

The adults all nodded.

“Right. Our best chance of success is to divide into three groups. One group will attack the main entrance as a distraction. Once that starts, we have to hope the things reinforce it. The other two teams will come in from the other entrance and attempt to find the king.” Jason’s father said.

“We’re going to be spread pretty thin.” Troy’s mother said.

Mr. Cross nodded. “I know.”

“The king and his guards will be the oldest and the most capable combatants.” Gabriella’s father said.

“That means our best fighters need to be on the teams going in the side entrances.” Jason’s father said while turning to look at us.

“You kids, except for Jason, our going to be the distraction. Jason, go with the Bolton’s, and our visitor to this entrance,” he tapped the map. “The rest of us will come in from the other side.”

Ryan and Troy nodded, as did Kelsi. I saw a small smile play on Gabriella’s lips.

* * *

The teams gathered weapons and split up, and took three separate cars; we’d all be entering the sewers at different locations. The members of the distraction piled into Troy’s truck, he and Ryan in the cab, the three girls in the back.

Kelsi gave Jason a long kiss before joining Gabriella and I. No one said anything about it. We all knew it might be the last they’d ever share. As I looked from Kelsi to the street saw a yellow car drive through the intersection at the end of Jason’s block.

“Gabriella, why did you bring your backpack?” Kelsi asked.

She flashed a mysterious smile. “Just in case I have some time to do some homework.”

I rolled my eyes. Did she ever turn off?

We’d coordinate with the other groups by cell phone before entering, but would be out of contact after that. If the teams didn’t run into each other in the nest then the plan was for everyone to meet back at Jason’s after whatever happened.

Troy parked on the street. We waited in the car, alternating our attention between the setting sun and the manhole in the middle of the street.

I caught a glimpse of another yellow car passing by the nearby intersection. Or had it been the same car? No. I assured myself that I was just being paranoid.

Right after sunset Kelsi’s phone rang.

“Yes?”

“We’re going now then.”

She gave a nod and jumped out of the trucks bed.

A car drove passed us, and she looked up and down the street to make sure there were no others.

Troy and Ryan climbed out of the front as Gabriella and I made our way down, she clutching her backpack.

Kelsi, with a strength that I couldn’t help but find surprising, lifted the manhole cover and motioned us over. A foul odor wafted out of the open sewer.

Ryan and Troy leapt into the darkness below. Gabriella threw her backpack on and took the ladder. I also opted for the ladder, drawing my knife and holding it with my teeth as I descended.

“Hurry up. Another car might come.”

After Gabriella and I had reached the bottom Kelsi followed us. Setting the manhole cover back in place before dropping the rest of the way to join us.

Ryan snapped a glow stick and shook it up, using the feeble light to illuminate a piece of paper in his hand. “Come on, it’s this way.”

We followed him into the darkness and stench.

I bumped into Gabriella’s backpack, and she jumped.

“Careful.”

“Sorry.”

“Shh…” Ryan hissed. “We’re close.”

I could smell something else passed the sewer’s stench now, just a hint of rotten meat.

It brought back memories of the night I lost Zeke. I felt a cold rage stir in the far corner of my mind.

My hearing grew sharper. I could hear a strange meeping echoing from somewhere in the darkness ahead.

“Get your lights out, but keep them hidden.” Ryan whispered.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a glow stick as everyone else did the same. I cracked it and gave it a good shake before returning it to my pocket.

We crept forward. I tried to keep my breathing as steady and quiet as possible.

There was now a murmuring in the darkness ahead of us, interrupted by the occasional meep or squeal and the sounds of a scuffle.

It’s hard to judge distance in a place like the sewers. We walked for what felt like miles before Ryan again stopped us.

I could just make out a corner in the darkness before him. He pointed around it, and nodded. The sounds were far louder. I could hear things babbling and squealing in gibberish, mixed with low growls. We were there.

Ryan held up his left hand with three fingers outstretched.

He folded the first, then the second.

When he folded the third he sprang forward, casting his glow stick to the ground and raising his saber before him.

We charged around the corner, our own lights now revealed.

There were about twelve of the things gathered around the excavated entrance to their nest.

I could see them in the green light cast by our glow sticks; they weren’t human, but some approached humanity to varying degrees. Most of them, while roughly bipedal, had a forward slumping, and vaguely canine cast. The texture of their skin was a kind of unpleasant rubberiness, made all the more nauseating by the eerie green glow. Two appeared to be in battle over their prey, the body of a child, no older than ten which lay in pieces on the ground, while the others clustered around them.

Ryan took the first one by surprise. Its face didn’t even have time to register shock as my brother’s saber sliced through its throat.

It fell back, clutching at its wound. It’s blood, black in the green light, spurting as it collapsed.

One towards the back shouted in alarm as we fell upon them. One closed on me. I side stepped its clumsy strike and answered with one of my own.

I’d aimed for its heart, but I think I only managed to graze a lung. Nonetheless it fell back and I turned to strike another.

Claws raked my back, and I kicked backwards while falling forwards to drive my blade deep into the belly of the second.

We finished off the ones lying on the ground and turned to face the entrance.

“Well that was easy.” Troy said.

“We haven’t won yet.” Kelsi said as angry squeals erupted from the darkness of the nest’s entrance.

A wave of the creatures exploded from the shadows.

“Close your eyes and cover your ears.” Gabriella shouted.

I saw a flaming object fly passed my head and obeyed.

There was a dazzling flash of white, visible even through my closed eyes, and even through my hands the sound was deafening.

I opened my eyes to see the creatures clutching their heads, dazed by whatever Gabriella had thrown.

We pushed forward and cut into them.

Even as we cut through them another wave appeared from the darkness behind them.

“Duck and cover.” Gabriella called.

I clutched my ears and shut my eyes as another fiery light flew over my head.

I cursed my good hearing as it went off, but recovered before the things before us. I stepped forward thrusting my blade into one’s belly and slicing upwards.

As the last of our nearby adversaries fell we took a moment to regroup.

“What the Hell are those things, Gabi?” Ryan shouted over his own deafness.

She smiled and clutched her backpack. “Just some things I made in the chemistry lab, mostly magnesium.”

“Subtle.” Kelsi yelled.

“We’re not supposed to be the subtle ones here.” Troy yelled.

Ryan led us passed the dead things and into the nest. It didn’t look too stable.

“How many more of those things do you have?” Ryan asked.

“Eighteen, and a few other examples of practical chemistry.”

I took some of the tatters from my shirt and wadded them into my ears.

Another wave met us at a fork in the tunnels.

Gabriella stunned them with another of her home made toys and we made short work of them.

“Which way?” Kelsi asked.

Ryan shrugged. “Left, always go left.”

“Why?” Troy asked.

“I read it online somewhere. Also, it smells like more of them are that way.”

We fought our way through the inhuman caverns, more of the things seemed to wait around every corner, and we were hit from behind more than once.

When Gabriella had only six of her surprises left Ryan told her to stop using them.

“We’ll need those for when we retreat. We’ll just have to do this the old fashioned way from here on in.”

She nodded.

It got harder after that, a lot harder. I hadn’t appreciated how much easier those blinding flashes of light had been making it.

We took more hits than we gave. Troy was the first to shift, when one of the things got in a lucky shot on Ryan, almost taking his head clear off. Destroying what little remained of his clothes he grew into a furry killing machine.

Sword in one hand and wielding his claws with the other he waded into the midst of the things standing over my brother.

My brother soon followed Troy into savagery, tossing his saber to me he engaged the things tooth and claw.

Still we pressed on. I was drenched in almost equal amounts of their blood and my own when at last my rage took over.

I kneed one in the groin and felt something close its arms in a choke hold over my neck. I whipped my body forward, bringing my assailant over my head and to the front.

I lashed out with claws I hadn’t even realized I had and raked out its eyes.

The thing squealed in pain before I drew my knife across its throat.

What seemed like an unending mass of the things pressed us from a side passage, threatening at last to overwhelm us.

“Fire in the hole!” Gabriella shouted and I saw another flaming ember hurl into the darkness of the side passage.

I dropped to the ground clutching my ears.

There was no bright light this time, but a blast of heat and noise that lifted me off the ground.

When I opened my eyes I saw that all the things we’d been fighting were dead and the tunnel they’d been attacking us from had collapsed.

Ryan just stared at Gabriella, incapable of speech in his current form, fur growing back into the areas that the Einsteinette’s bomb had seared.

“I told you I had some other surprises in here.”

He nodded and turned toward the only remaining passage deeper into the nest.

I couldn’t smell anything beyond the scent of the smoldering bodies that surrounded us.


	18. Chapter 18

We pressed ahead, surprised to at how little resistance we encountered, just a few packs, none numbering more than a dozen.

As we pressed further in, our surrounding began to change. Gone were the freshly dug tunnels. We were wandering now through natural caverns, a dark place filled with an eerie silence that seemed to resent our every breath for intruding upon it.

There were drawings on the walls as we progressed further into the nightmare labyrinth; strange symbols that looked like the offspring of a snake and a squid. On one wall we passed there was a mural, if you could call it that, showing doglike things kneeling before the squid-snake. I didn’t know what it meant, and I didn’t want to know.

In the distance we began to hear a strange rhythmic sound as we continued deeper into the nest. It sounded almost like the Gregorian chant CD mother liked to listen to.

Ryan rounded a corner, and froze before dropping low.

I stepped up behind him and looked around the corner.

My brother was crouched on a ledge high over a fire lit chamber.

The chanting was coming from a number of indistinct figures gathered in the middle of the room.

It sounded like they were repeating the same short phrase over and over. “Ya Motichian.” It was almost beautiful.

Someone poked me in the side, and I turned to find Gabriella and Kelsi looking at me.

I didn’t dare speak. I mouthed, ‘the king,’ to them.

Their eyes went wide.

Troy joined my brother on the ledge; he was crouched low and watched the spectacle below in silence.

I continued to watch from behind the corner. Gabriella and Kelsi were unable to get close enough to see anything, at least not without risking our being detected.

“Ya Motichian.” The chant echoed through our hiding place high above the heads of the things that spoke in doglike voices.

I was worried. I’d told Gabriella and Kelsi that we’d reached the king, but had we? Who else could it be? But if it was the king, how had we gotten here first? We were the distraction; we weren’t supposed to even get near the king.

I looked down on the figures. My eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I willed up enough of my inner cat to focus them more.

There were a cluster of the things, dressed in strange robes, either purple or burgundy, it was impossible to tell at this distance in this light. They gathered around the most doglike of the things I’d seen.

Almost all hints of humanity had been stripped from it. It crouched on all fours, adorned in a cloak of dark feathers the same color as the robes; a flash of firelight alerted me to the presence of something metallic covering its face.

I had to restrain myself from jumping when I heard an echo from the caverns behind us. It wasn’t much, just a footstep, but my keen hearing had detected it with ease.

I tapped Ryan on the shoulder, and pointed back the way we’d come.

He gave me a curious look, but backed away from the edge. Troy and the other two followed.

I gestured towards the dark passage once we were, what I hoped was, far enough from the ledge.

“There’s something down there.” I pointed into the black passage.

He nodded and took a few steps forward, his glow stick held above his head.

Tiny Kelsi crept after him.

I heard another footstep in the darkness, but the caves were messing with my senses of direction and distance. It could have been 20 feet or 200 feet away for all I could tell.

Behind us the droning chant continued.

Ryan and Kelsi vanished into the darkness. All I could see was the bobbing point of light that Ryan carried.

A gunshot rang out. The light source fell to the ground.

I held my breath. The chanting continued without interruption. Either they somehow hadn’t heard, or they didn’t care.

What the hell was going on, dog things didn’t use guns. Did they?

I heard a pair of muffled yells, and then Kelsi calling out in a whisper.

“Get back here guys.”

We advanced into the darkness. Finding Ryan and Kelsi clutching two very human forms, their hands clamped tight over their mouths; Jesse and Joey.

“Shit.” Was I could think to say.

Their eyes and struggles calmed a bit when I stepped into the circle of light cast by the glow stick on the ground. I was surprised that even Joey seemed to relax in my presence.

“What are you two doing here?” Gabriella demanded.

Jesse attempted to say something, but ended up mumbling around Kelsi’s hand.

I looked at Kelsi, and she released her hand.

“We wanted to help you.” Jesse said, his voice louder then I liked.

“Shh… not so loud.” I said.

Ryan rolled his eyes.

“How did you find us?” Gabriella demanded in a whisper.

“They followed us from Jason’s.” How had I been so stupid? I hadn’t recognized my brother’s own car.

“Are you suicidal?” Kelsi asked, releasing Jesse at last.

“We… I… wanted to make it up to you, for trying to kill you guys.” Joey whispered, Ryan having released him.

“The best way you could have done that is to have never come down to this Hellhole.” I whispered.

They at least had the decency to look ashamed.

I heard something move in the darkness behind them. I saw a pair of eyes reflect the green light, followed by another.

“Shit.” I said again, springing passed the two idiots my knife drawn.

I knocked the first one to the ground, and spun my blade around to gut the second, but there were more coming.

Joey retrieved his pistol from the ground, and fired a shot into the darkness.

I heard something grunt.

“Gun’s don’t work.” Kelsi said as she turned to face the advancing things with me.

I took Ryan’s discarded saber from my back and tossed it behind me. “Learn to use that, and learn fast.”

We slaughtered the first wave without trouble, but behind them it was like a living river of inhuman monstrosities.

We were screwed. The king at our backs and a tidal wave of flesh in front of us.

Three of the things forced Kelsi to the ground, their teeth sinking deep into her neck.

Another lunged for me, but Troy intercepted it and broke its arm with one swipe of his clawed hand.

“Fire in the hole!” Gabriella shouted.

I turned as I saw the flaming ember go over my head.

Jesse was just standing there like an idiot, paralyzed with fear. I tackled him to the ground, placing my body between his and the blast.

Fire washed over us, followed by silence and the smell of burning flesh.

My back was in agony, but it started to fade as soon as I realized it was there.

Gabriella’s quick thinking had been in time to save Kelsi. The tiny girl crawled from beneath the smoldering bodies of her assailants; her neck wound knitting shut as she did so.

A rumbling sound filled the tunnel, and we rushed back to the chamber we’d just been in as the ceiling collapsed.

We were now trapped in the tiny room above the king’s cavern.

I realized with horror that the chanting had stopped.

I raced to the ledge and looked down. To my relief none of the things were looking in our direction at all, instead facing a trio of werewolves that had entered from another passage.

Ryan joined me.

Things were not going well for the trio; I couldn’t tell who it was.

“Ryan, we have to help them. It’s our only way out now.”

He nodded.

Kelsi pushed her way to my side and looked down. “Gabriella. Use one of your flashbangs.”

I stepped back from the edge and Gabriella approached it, fishing something from her much emptier backpack. She lit a fuse and tossed it.

“Duck and cover!” She screamed as it vanished from sight.

I closed my eyes and covered my ears. As soon as I heard it I launched myself from the ledge, followed by Kelsi.

She landed well. I didn’t. I heard more than felt the bones in my legs shatter.

Ryan dropped down next to me, Joey clinging to his back, followed by Gabriella and Troy holding Jesse in his arms.

The two werewolf lovers dropped their charges on the ground and sprang towards the nearest robed figure, which seemed at least to still be dazed.

I forced my legs out straight, and heard a string of wet pops as the bones reassembled themselves.

I pushed myself up and lunged for another of the robed figures. It recovered from its daze in time to spin and deflect my blow.

My knife cut through its robe, but not its flesh.

It lunged forward with its claws and plunged them into my stomach as its weight bore me to the ground.

Kelsi leapt onto it, plunging her sword into its neck. It gurgled as it fell.

I forced the pain from my mind and stood up in time to see the king charge one of the elder werewolves.

It bore its prey to the far wall, and buried its face in his stomach.

The wolf howled in pain, his eyes met mine for an instant before, and then he stopped moving.

The king ripped the dead werewolf’s head off before pulling back and looking at me from across the room. Its canine muzzle protruded from a bloody mask made of silver.

“The king’s got silver.” I shouted and dodged a blow from another of the robed chanters.

“Perfect.” I heard Kelsi say.

I spun and shoved my newest assailant into one of the crude braziers that was lighting the room. Its robe caught fire and the thing went up in flames.

“Sharpay!”

I spun at the sound of my name and found one of the things closing on Jesse.

Great, just what I needed, a non-combatant to worry about it.

It reached Jesse first, its massive jaws gaping wider then I would’ve thought possible as its teeth sank into his abdomen.

I plunged my knife into its back and twisted it in the wound until the thing stopped moving.

I pried its jaws from Jesse, but the wounds were deep. I’m no doctor, but I knew it was bad.

Joey appeared at my side, cradling his boyfriend’s head.

The shocked look on Jesse’s face as he slumped backwards, losing consciousness reminded me of the last look Zeke had given me before these things took him from me.

I felt rage fill me. My inner jaguar sprang to life, no longer afraid.

I saw Gabriella down one of the things nearby with Ryan’s help.

“Gabi, protect these two.”

They were the last intelligible words I’d say for some time.

The pressure of transformation filled my body, and I welcomed it.

I turned and saw the king attempting to close on another of the adult Oborotni.

My clothes ripped to shred around me as I charged.

I hurtled over one of the robed chanters and landed on the king’s back, my claws raking him as I did so.

It wasn’t much, but it distracted the king long enough for the werewolf he’d been about to attack to sidestep him and swing her sword into his side.

The king squealed in pain and shook me from his back. Knocking his other assailant to the ground as he did so.

He stood to his full height above me and shouted the words of their former chant. “Ya Motichian!”

He plunged downwards, burying his muzzle in my guts.

I raked downwards with my claws, prying the skeletal silver mask from his face.

The chanters took up their king’s cry and chanted now even as they fought.

“Ya Motichian!” Filled the chamber.

The king pulled back from his meal and reached for my head, but I rolled to the side and sprinted to safety as the two remaining adults pounced on him.

His silver mask laid on the ground where it had fallen, covered in my blood.

It grew darker in the chamber, and I looked up to see a colossal shadow that wasn’t being cast by anything in the room.

The room grew cold as my wound healed. I could see my panted breaths hanging in the air before me.

I spun and threw myself at the nearest chanter. My teeth ripped at his throat. It tasted foul, and its flesh was every bit as rubbery as it looked, but I didn’t stop until my efforts were rewarded with a spray of blood from its severed jugular.

I spit the thing’s disgusting flesh from my mouth, and wheeled around to pounce on the king again, adding fresh wounds to its back.

Again, it wasn’t much, but it was all the distraction one of the wolves needed. She sprang for the king’s throat, and her teeth ripped out a huge gobbet of discolored flesh.

I dug my claws in, but the king’s struggles slowed, then ceased as his life’s blood fell to the floor.

“Motichian Shetak'n.” The slumped form gibbered before it died.

The wolf cleaved the thing’s head off with her sword.

The chill in the room faded, and the light returned to its previous level.

After that, cleaning up the chanters was easier. They lost their will to fight after the king died, and in twos and threes we brought each of them down.


	19. Chapter 19

My rage began to fade. My inner jaguar retreating to a well earned rest.

I picked my way passed the bodies, oblivious to my nudity, pausing as I came upon the head of Jason’s father, laying where the king had thrown it.

I battled back tears as I made my way towards Gabriella, who still stood guard over the pair of all too human boys.

Jesse was breathing, but it was shallow. He looked pale, and Joey didn’t look much better despite not having a mark on him.

Ryan and Troy approached; both human once again, followed by Kelsi’s parents, her mother holding the sword that had taken the king’s head.

Kelsi looked at them. “Jason’s parents?”

Her father shook his head.

Kelsi broke down into tears, and her parents embraced her.

“What about my parents?” Troy asked.

Mrs. Nielsen shrugged.

“We didn’t see them.” Kelsi’s father said.

Troy nodded, and returned his attention to Jesse.

“Who are they?” Mrs. Nielsen asked, pulling away from her daughter.

“Idiots.” Ryan said with a sad sigh.

Mrs. Nielsen dropped down besides Jesse and examined his wound. “Humans?”

We all nodded.

Kelsi’s mother stood, and looked at her husband. She shook her head.

I swallowed.

“He’ll be okay, won’t he?” Joey asked, his eyes like those of a little boy.

I caught Gabriella’s eye, she was crying.

“You can save him can’t you? If one of you bites him?” Joey sounded desperate.

“It’s not that simple, he wouldn’t fast enough.” Mr. Nielsen said.

“But he might. I did.” Gabriella said, trying not to sob as she spoke,

“That was different, Gabriella, you were bitten by one of us.”

“Please…” Joey tried to say more but his words were cut off by a sob.

“We don’t have time to argue. If one of you doesn’t do it right now, I will.” I said.

Mrs. Nielsen looked at me, and sighed. “Ryan, do it.”

Ryan nodded and took a deep breath. His features began to shift, and his mouth elongated. I found myself envying how easy changing was for him.

He bent down and took Jesse’s hand.

“No. Closer to his heart, and the wound. Use lots of spit” Gabriella said.

Ryan nodded and pulled up Jesse’s ruined shirt. He sank his teeth into the flesh nearest the wound, using just enough pressure to break the skin, he pulled back leaving a glistening wet bite mark.

Joey placed a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “Thank you.”

Ryan stood up, and allowed his features to return to normal.

“We can’t risk moving him. Troy, Ryan, and Sharpay, they should be scattering, go see if you can find Troy’s parents. Lucille will know what to do.” Mr. Nielsen said.

Mrs. Nielsen turned to look at her daughter and Gabriella. “Now, why don’t you two explain to me why you all thought it would be a good idea to bring a pair of humans down here.”

Kelsi swallowed. I had the feeling that I’d been given the easier task.

Ryan reclaimed his saber from Joey and we headed again into the dark tunnels of the nest.

We got lost more times than any of us would care to admit. We ran into only a few of the things, most of which chose to flee at our approach. The few who didn’t… well they learned why they should have.

We wandered alone in the dark for three hours before hearing familiar voices from ahead of us.

“And I say we’ve already been this way.” Troy’s father sounded angry.

“You have no sense of direction, gringo.”

“Stop calling me that. You aren’t even Mexican.”

Jason laughed.

“Boys, shut up and get back to looking for the way out.” Mrs. Bolton snapped.

“We’re not looking for the way out. We have to make sure the king is dead.” Meli said.

“Look at them, they’re scattering, just like you said they would. The king is dead. Let’s just get the Hell out of here and hope our kids are still alive.” Troy’s father had started out angry, but by the end of his statement his voice was filled with worry.

“We’re fine, Dad.” Troy called out.

“Troy?” His mother rounded a corner in front of us and rushed to embrace her naked son. I noticed her clothing hadn’t fared well either.

“Where’s Kelsi?” Jason asked.

“Back in the king’s room, with her parents.” I replied.

“With _her_ parents?” He asked. Trust Jason to be perceptive about the one thing you don’t want him to be perceptive about.

I looked away from him. Ryan avoided making eye contact with him too.

“Mom, we need to go back there. Jesse’s hurt.”

Troy’s father was livid. “What the Hell was that little hunter doing down here with you?”

“They followed us.” I said.

We lead the three of them, and a silent Jason, back towards the king’s chamber.

We reached a chamber with passages branching off in several directions.

Ryan headed for one.

“It’s this way Ryan.” Troy said.

“No it’s not, we came from this tunnel.”

“Yeah, hours ago on our way in.”

“No, that’s the tunnel we came in through; this is the tunnel back to everyone else.”

I rolled my eyes and headed towards a third tunnel. “It’s this one, and if you two could take your eyes off each other for ten seconds you’d know that.”

Troy’s parents chuckled and followed me.

It took over half an hour from when we found Troy’s parents to reach the chamber, which meant it had been almost four hours since we’d left Jesse there battling for his life.

Mrs. Bolton rushed to Jesse’s side. He was still breathing; maybe Ryan’s bite was working.

I made my way towards them, but stopped when I heard a scream.

I spun in time to see Jason collapse to his knees. I knew where he was standing, what he was looking at.

Troy’s father knelt down next to the sobbing boy and attempted to place an arm around his shoulder, but Jason shrugged it off and continued to cry.

I passed Kelsi on my way to Jesse’s side.

Mrs. Bolton had taken the injured boy’s shirt off; she was examining the wounds and listening to his breathing.

Meli kicked the king’s head across the room.

Troy’s mother looked from Jesse to Joey. “It’s not good. We need to get him out of here.”

Joey shook his head. “They said moving him now might kill him.”

“Joey, if we move him, he might die. If we don’t move him, he will die. It isn’t safe here.”

Joey nodded.

“Kids, find a board if you can, and something to tie him to it with.”

There were some sparse furnishings down here, all scavenged from trash cans and back alleys by the look of it. Ryan broke the legs off a table, and I cut up one of the chanter’s robes, trying to avoid parts stained with blood… or other unidentifiable fluids.

Mrs. Bolton assisted us in moving him onto the table and tying him down.

Ryan and Troy lifted it and picked their way through the room with as much caution as they were capable of.

Gabriella and I lead the way out.

Jason, Kelsi, and Troy’s father came last. Jason insisted on bringing his father’s head with him for a proper burial. We never did find where his mother had fallen.

It was slow going. The table was unwieldy, and the two boys carrying it moved with exaggerated care.

We exited the same way we came in, passing the first collapsed tunnel as we went. The scent of burned flesh still lingered in the air.

“What happened here?” Gabriella’s father asked.

Gabriella hoisted her backpack. “Dynamite.”

Meli grinned at his daughter. “Where’d you get dynamite?”

She shrugged. “I made it.”

He turned away from her then, but I saw the glimmer of pride in his eyes as we continued on.

We ran into a problem when we reached the sewers. How were we going to get Jesse up to the street?

“We’ll have to unstrap him and hoist him up.” Mrs. Bolton said.

Joey didn’t look convinced. “Is that safe.”

Troy’s mother shook her head. “No.”

Kelsi left her place by Jason’s side and climbed up first. As one of the few still dressed she was the best choice to check things out.

She lifted the manhole cover, scattering particles of rust over those of us clustered below.

I sneezed.

She moved the cover to the side and climbed out, motioning for us to follow.

Troy climbed up next, while Ryan held the unconscious boy.

Troy’s father followed his son up, and several moments later a coil of coarse rope was lowered down. Troy’s mother affixed it around Jesse’s torso, under his arms, and they hoisted him up.

I held my breath as with each tug he swung in the fetid air.

At last they pulled him through the hole, and Joey was the next one up, followed by Ryan.

Troy and his father had placed Jesse in the bed of Troy’s truck before I reached the surface, a place I’d never thought I’d see again.

Ryan’s car was parked on the street right behind the truck.

The street was dark and deserted. It was after three in the morning, so I wasn’t surprised.

Ryan took his keys from Joey.

Troy, Kelsi, and Jason climbed into the front of the truck. His parents and Joey joined Jesse in the back.

“Meet up at my place.” Troy said to Ryan before pulling out, again with exaggerated caution.

Ryan took Kelsi’s parents to the car they’d come in, while Gabriella, her father, and I waited in the sewer.

I turned to ask Meli a question; he was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’d your father go?”

Gabriella looked around in surprise, and then sighed. “You know what? Fuck if I know.”

I giggled at her use of profanity.

Ryan’s horn honked echoed from the street above.

Gabriella climbed up first, and I followed.

He managed to shove the manhole cover back into place, and then squeezed into Ryan’s car.

“Where’s your father?”

Gabi just gave an angry shrug from the back seat.

We went to our own house first so that Ryan and I could find clothes.

I was in a hurry, but one look at my gore spackled body convinced me to take a long shower first. Ryan and Gabriella did the same.

When I emerged into the hall Ryan was stepping out of Jesse and Joey’s room, holding a change of clothes for each of the boys.

We met Gabriella downstairs and climbed into Ryan’s now unpleasant smelling car.

“Ugh. What’s that smell?” I asked.

“The blood we dripped all over the seats.” He snapped.

The three of us took some time then to mop up the worst of it, but I was certain it would never smell right again.

We stopped at Jason’s house on the way to Troy’s and I reclaimed my car, before following my brother to his boyfriend’s house.

Kelsi opened the door. She’d also taken some time to clean up, and was wearing what looked like one of Troy’s old shirts.

As we came into the house the smell of blood and worse was everywhere.

Jason was crying in the corner, still in his gore stained clothes, holding the wrapped up head of his father. While Mr. Bolton paced, Joey sat on the couch next to Jason, glancing often at what Jason held.

Troy, his mother, and Jesse were nowhere to be seen.

“How’s Jesse?” Gabriella asked.

Kelsi shrugged. “I don’t know. Troy’s mom said he lost a lot of blood and the wounds looked infected.”

Troy’s mother helped Troy down the stairs; he looked unsteady on his feet.

Joey was on his feet in an instant. “How is he?”

She shrugged. “Only time will tell. You can go upstairs and see him.”

Joey bolted passed her up the stairs.

“What’s wrong, Troy?” Ryan asked.

Troy attempted a smile.

“He just gave Jesse a transfusion, his blood should regenerate soon.” Mrs. Bolton said.

Ryan pulled his boyfriend into a kiss. Troy leaned into him.

Gabriella and I made our way into the kitchen and attempted to prepare some food.

Kelsi’s parents arrived soon after, but left again with Kelsi and Jason.

Our cooking wasn’t good, but no one said anything about it.

I took a plate up the stairs and knocked on the door to Troy’s room.

“It’s open.” Joey said.

I opened the door and stepped inside. Jesse was lying on the bed, the sheets pulled over him.

“I thought you might want some food.” I offered the plate to Joey.

He shook his head. “I’m not hungry.”

I nodded, and set the plate down on Troy’s nightstand. “I’ll just leave it here then, in case you change your mind.”

Joey grabbed my hand. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

I turned to look him in the eyes. “We thought it would be safer for you.”

“If we’d known…” He let the words hang there.

I pulled my hand free, he didn’t resist. “You’re right.”

I left the room, closing the door behind me.

I found Ryan and Troy sleeping on the couch when I came downstairs, Troy’s parents were nowhere to be seen.

I felt exhausted and was tempted to join them on the couch, but I knew I wasn’t ready to sleep yet. My nightmares had been bad enough before, I didn’t want to face them now.

I made my way to the garage, and found Gabriella already there.

“Can’t sleep?” She asked.

I shook my head.

In silence we gathered up every cleaner they had. I was surprised to discover how many bottles of bleach they owned.

We set to work cleaning Troy’s truck.

The bed was simple enough, but the cab was miserable. Filled with the stench of blood and congealed liquids.

“He’ll need new upholstery.” I said when we’d done all we could.

Gabriella nodded.

I went inside and retrieved Ryan’s keys.

Gabriella pulled Troy’s truck out and parked it in the street, I drove my brother’s car into the garage, and we began working on it too.

I was amazed at how much dried gore we’d missed in the previous cleaning.

“Ryan will need new upholstery too.” Gabriella sighed when we were finished.

“I should just see if I can get my parents to buy them both new cars.”

We went inside then, as the sun was rising, and I collapsed into a large comfortable chair, allowing sleep to claim me at last.


	20. Chapter 20

I awoke to a series of loud knocks on the door.

No one else had seemed to be awake so I went to the door and looked through the peephole. Kelsi’s parents had returned.

I opened the door and they came inside, dragging a bleary eyed Kelsi and cleaned up Jason with them.

I was relieved to find that he hadn’t brought his father’s head with him this time.

“Where are the Bolton’s?” Kelsi’s mother asked.

I shrugged. “In bed I think.”

“Go get them.”

I sighed and climbed the stairs. I paused at Troy’s room and opened the door.

Joey had fallen asleep on the floor next to the bed. Jesse was still breathing, which I hoped was a good sign.

I closed the door and continued to the end of the hall.

I knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

I knocked harder.

The door opened and an angry and tired Mr. Bolton stared at me.

“Kelsi’s parents are here, they want to see you.”

He nodded and sighed before closing the door.

Troy’s parents came downstairs after a few minutes, and went into the kitchen with Kelsi’s parents.

Kelsi and Jason were sitting on the couch at the far end from where Troy and Ryan slept.

I returned to my chair and tried to fall back asleep, but the horrors that greeted me each time my eyes closed convinced me against it.

Instead I focused my hearing on the quiet conversation in the kitchen.

“How are we going to cover this up?” Mr. Nielsen asked.

“I don’t know.” Troy’s mother answered.

“Two disappearances, and our cars drenched in blood. And if that boy dies… well it won’t help us convince the police that you aren’t the serial killer, Jack.”

Troy’s father sighed. “I know, and there’ll be plenty of evidence to link him right to me.”

“We’ll need to clean out the Cross’s basement. The police will search the house, and we can’t leave all of that there.”

“Their neighbors probably saw us leave with them, in your car.” Mr. Bolton said.

“Which is also filled with evidence.” Troy’s mother said.

Mrs. Nielsen sighed. “I know, and they’ll have seen the kids there too, the kids who were off sick all last week.”

“Do we run?” Troy’s mother asked.

Mr. Nielsen laughed. “All of us? It’d only be a matter of time before one of us got caught, and we can’t allow that to happen to any of us.”

“So we need to come up with a story then.” Troy’s father said.

“There’s no way to come up with a story that makes us look innocent in all of this.” Troy’s mother said.

“No, there isn’t. But there might be a way to minimize the damage.” Mrs. Nielsen said.

“What are we going to do about the other boy?” Kelsi’s father asked, changing the subject.

“What do you mean?” Troy’s mother asked.

“He knows too much, Lucille. You should have brought them both to us sooner.” Kelsi’s mother said.

“The kids were afraid you’d kill them.” Mr. Bolton said.

“And this is better? And if we hadn’t killed them then they would’ve been prepared for last night, and we wouldn’t be facing the very real threat of another East High student dying.”

Troy’s mother sighed. “You’re right. But hindsight is twenty-twenty, there’s no use dwelling on the past now.”

“He’ll have to be turned.” Kelsi’s father said.

My eyes widened. Across the room I saw Kelsi’s eyes open as well. Jason didn’t react; it seemed that he’d managed to fall asleep.

“Why don’t you go get him, Lucille?” Kelsi’s mother said.

I heard Mrs. Bolton sigh, but she exited the room and went up stairs. Kelsi and I both closed are eyes, pretending to be asleep.

“You changed the subject pretty fast there.” Mr. Bolton said.

“I didn’t think she’d want to hear this.” Mr. Nielsen said.

I heard Troy’s father sigh again. “I have to take the fall.”

“It’s the only way, Jack.” Kelsi’s mother said.

“You just have to disappear for a while, let the police think that you were the killer.” Kelsi’s father said.

“How long?”

“A few years. Maybe a decade should do it.” Kelsi’s mother said.

“A decade?”

“It’ll be over before you know it.” Mr. Nielsen said.

There conversation died when Mrs. Bolton returned with Joey in tow.

“What’s going on?” He asked when he entered the kitchen.

“You know too much.” Mrs. Nielsen said.

“What do you mean?” Joey sounded much more awake then he had the moment before, there was an edge of panic in his voice.

“We can’t let a _human_ wander around knowing as much as you do.” Kelsi’s father said.

“Fine, but make it fast.” He sounded resigned to his fate.

“You do it, Lucille.” Mrs. Nielsen said.

“Give me your arm, Joey.” Troy’s mother said.

“My arm?”

“Well where do you want to be bit?” Mr. Bolton asked.

“Bit?”

“What, did you think we were going to kill you?” Troy’s mother asked.

“Uh… yeah.”

“And you’d let us, just like that?”

“What does it matter? Jesse’s going to die, and without him I have nothing left.”

“You don’t know that. Not yet. And when he does pull through, it’ll only be a matter of time before you wind up one of us anyway.” Troy’s father said, trying to sound reassuring.

“Give me your arm, Joey.” Mrs. Bolton said again.

Joey gave a grunt of pain.

“Now go back upstairs, try to get some sleep.” Troy’s father said.

I watched Joey leave the kitchen, nursing a bloody bite on his upper arm.

I turned back and met Kelsi’s eyes.

She shrugged.

I sighed. After everything we’d gone through to keep them from being turned, it had all been ruined in a single day.

Why did they have to follow us?

“Now that that’s been dealt with, back to the other matter.” Kelsi’s mother said.

“I’ll go pack.” Troy’s father said.

“What?” Mrs. Bolton asked.

“It’s the only way, Lucille.”

“There has to be another way.”

“Not one that we can find before the police show up.”

“Jack…”

“I have to go now. If I’m not gone before Troy gets up I won’t be able to do this.”

“There’s nothing I can say to change your mind?”

“This is how it has to be.”

I heard Mrs. Bolton start to cry as Mr. Bolton left the kitchen and climbed the stairs.

He returned soon with a small bag.

Troy’s mother embraced him in front of the door.

“Try to stay in touch.” She whispered in his ear.

He shook his head. “I can’t, not for a while.”

He leaned in and kissed her. “I love you.”

With those last words he was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published between 10/12/2007 and 10/21/2007 at FanFiction.net.


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